Echo
by Beta Genius
Summary: Death turns its back because of your lies, memories sealed behind your eyes. When all else fails and you have nothing left, what will you do to get back the life taken in theft? Legato refused to die and now he will find out why... all chps uploaded.R&R p
1. Chapter 1

A/N Don't own Trigun. Takes place after the series. Constructive criticism good, but no flames please. Enjoy!

Echo

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Prolog

A heartbeat. That's all he could hear in this head of his. No thoughts. No pain at the moment. Just the heart in his chest that kept his blood flowing. It was the only thing he could find similar to them, to these creatures. Although, he would rather be dead than be compared to _them_. There was nothing he wanted from them, nothing he desired because everything about them made him sick in one way or the other. They were so selfish, egotistical, all to a point where he was ashamed to be apart of their race.

If only he had died long ago, if he had not slowed the bullet from drilling through his head, then maybe he wouldn't still be stuck in this purgatory...

But if it was one thing he envied of these people it was something he had been missing for quite some time. It was something that was taken from him, something that had suspended him in a state like a marionette's for years. All days before this time had been in a blur, all thoughts existing only as a never-ending nightmare he could not wake from. Though now that his mind was free from the chains of a man he thought he owed his life to, he could see as clear as the night sky. In this sight of his he knew what his purpose was, why he was alive at that very moment. It was to get back his memories.

Ah yes, the very same memories that only linger in a blur to him now, slowly seeping back in painful realization of his former ways. He knew that this was only a sampling of what he could receive, and unless he got them back in full this was all he was ever going to remember. The anguishing, incomplete memories before his pursuit of Vash the Stampede would repeat themselves in his dreams, haunting him until the end of days.

And that was why he was here now, sitting there, staring on at someone he had been following for days. The bus he was on traveled along, its cooling system broken and the smell of sweat reeking the already stale air. Even in the heat and eye watering smell, however, his eyes had remained fixed, following every move a woman made. She sat three rows up and on the opposite side, her long brown hair in a low ponytail and swaying from the window to the aisle side every five minutes or so. Wringing her hands on her faded blue dress, she would swallow as she blinked in nervousness. The woman would pull out a picture every so often; a clipping from a 'Wanted' poster with the name of whom she was looking for. She wasn't after the money, though, as most with that picture would be. Instead, she was looking for answers, just as he was. But unlike him, she wanted to know about a family member that had been lost many years ago. Yes, he knew she would find her answers--but not before he retrieved his.

The bag she was carrying to her side had an encasement in it; a cylinder that held the last bit of her money. The cylinder was worthless, of course, but her last cents inside of it were worth so much more than most would think, so it was to no surprise if she ran after it. With a twitch of his hand the bag collapsed, the rusty cylinder falling out and rolling to the back of the bus. The woman gasped, jumping from her seat and running to get it. Before she could reach it, however, it smacked into his hand that was angled to the floor, picking it up and holding it to her. She stared in bewilderment for a second, no expression really riddled on her face. That was, until he smiled, taking her hand and placing it in her palm.

"Um...thank you, s-sir..." she stuttered, nodding her head shortly before turning back to her seat.

Little did she know, though, that when she got up someone who was standing had taken her place, her handbag lying on the floor with her things almost falling out. She sighed, walking over and picking it up while she stuffed the cylinder back into her bag, shaking her head as held onto the upper bar in the center of the bus.

Again did his eyes gaze on, accumulating the information he had acquired from touching her hand. Although he could read the minds of those he was around, he could only read the thoughts they were thinking at the time, not their inner subconscious as he had once been able. Another flaw to his arrogance in letting that bullet go through so far. Only when he touched them could he see into their minds, and the longer he lingered the more he could obtain. In this short time of holding her hand did he know her name, where she came from, her family linage...and this was only the tip of her memories. Though, he had come across her some time before, and he didn't even have to read her thoughts to know of her significance.

_'So, you're saying that his man, this _Vash_, went to go speak to my father Revnunt Buskus just before the accident in July?'_

The person she was looking for knew the man who took his memories, brothers to him even, and in it would be the key to getting them back. He wanted them back so badly he would do almost anything to get them, and in these thoughts he smirked.

Again did the woman shift in her paranoia that something was watching her, and indeed she was right. If only she had turned to see his amber eye staring at the back of her head, awaiting for the right time to carrying out his plan.

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Chapter One

From the window on the far side of the room, streaks of light finally bended around the partly closed shutter, smearing across the blond headed man's face. He had been there for hours, taking in his fill of donuts of the morning breakfast rush and all those who had just come into town gawked in awe. The man ate as if he wasn't human--but the ironic thing was everyone in town knew he wasn't just human. He was the Legendary Humanoid Typhoon after all, and eating donuts like there was no tomorrow was his specialty. Of course, with every donut he inhaled he'd have to make up with washing five plates throughout the day. But every last millisecond of taste a donut lasted was good enough for him, even though his hands would be all pruned and red by the end of the day with no money to show for it.

He just smiled and carried on every day like he had no cares in the world. And even if an angry mob came storming in and messed up the place he would still be stuffing his face. And even if they shouted and screamed while they drew their guns from their sides he would keep a smile. And even if the leader came tromping up and aimed a nine millimeter to his head he would still keep on smiling...

Well, by then he would swivel on his stool and faced them with chubby cheeks.

"Oh, hiya fellas!" he would say gleefully, swallowing what he had remaining in his mouth with one large gulp.

"Don't cha hiya us ya big bafoon! You're the sixty billion double dollar man, ain't cha?" the leader would say, every so often pulling out one of those Wanted posters from his pocket.

"Yeah, I guess I am. You're not here for that silly reward are you?" he would grin, only to have the gun shoved onto his nose.

"Damn straight! Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way..." he would reply, a scowl on his face.

It would always end up the hard way, Vash always winning and the men always being sent to jail in LR or something for disturbing the peace. The residence got use to it after awhile, and really it wasn't too bad having Vash around when hostiles came into town not looking for him but only to stir up some trouble. This day was no different, and although he wore a smile on his face he couldn't help but notice a presence that hadn't been there before. It was dim, almost nonexistent, but it was there nevertheless.

As the rowdies came in and the locals made way for another bar fight, some people from the bus that had just entered town came in as well, which would have been a mistake on their part. Though, as Vash was approached by the leader of this small group, someone stared in awe at his being, swallowing hard as her hands began to shake anxiously with the poster at her fingertips. Her footsteps began to rewind slowly, feeling herself being drawn back to the door in her fear, but stopping as she felt a cold breath come across her neck. She stood stern, paralyzed in shock as the cool breath seeped into her skin and up her spinal cord, up into her mind where she heard a whisper.

_'What are you waiting for? You came all this way, go and speak with him...'_ the whisper stated, her feet being pulled forward again. And then, almost as if she was being dragged against her will, her feet scuffed forward, knocking into people as she went until she finally slid in between Vash and the man drawing his gun.

Vash blinked in surprise, the woman shaking uncontrollably now as she looked up at him briefly then back to her picture. The man from the gang shouted furiously, the woman wincing with every raised syllable he made.

"Hey, whaddaya think yer doin' lady?! Don'cha know this is Vash the Stampede?! The Humanoid Typoon?! The sixty billion double dollar man?!" he yelled, the woman gazing down at her feet.

"A-are you...Vash...?" she asked, her quivering hands holding out the poster to him. Vash smirked, slowly slipping it away from her.

"Well gee, today must be my lucky day, huh? Two bounty hunters in a row-"

"I'm not here for the money, Mr. Vash..." she blurted out, clasping her hands together as she kept her head in a low bow.

Vash's expression turned puzzled, scratching the top of his head. "Then...why are you here?"

She did not reply.

"Look, lady, if yer not here to collect the reward then git out of our way!" he shouted, raising his gun to the back of her head. Yet, the woman remained, her lips trembling as if to say something important but unable to speak.

_'I do not have time for this nuisance...'_

"Look, I'll give ya to the count of three! One..." the man armed the gun, but barely uttered the second number before it dropped from out of his hand, firing off a shot that skimmed past the side of her face. The shocking thing was she didn't even flinch, but only stood there, shaking in fear, not even appearing to be fazed by it. The man grabbed his chest and wheezed for air, collapsing onto his knees and wallowing in pain. The other gang members carried him off quickly to get to a medic.

Vash gazed into the down turned face with wide eyes, silence drifting through the dusty barroom. The woman only stood there shivering, her hands clasped so tightly that little red drops began to appear on the wooden floor. She shook her head slowly, finally looking up at him for more than a second for the first time.

"You are...Vash the Stampede..?" she asked again, her dark green eyes beginning to fill with tears. As he nodded his head gradually, she suddenly fell to her knees, burying her face into her hands and hunching over as she began to sob. All he could do was stare on for the longest time, shocked and surprised on this woman's sudden appearance, and why she had almost gotten killed just to know if it was him or not. Snapping out of his trace like state, he kneeled over, putting a hand on her shoulder. He smiled like he always did, trying to get to her cheer up just a little.

"Let's just start with your name, okay?" he gestured, the woman controlling herself in a few moments to speak at least somewhat clearly through her tears.

"Katyenka...My name...is Katyenka Buskus...I-I'm here because I was told you knew my father...His name was Revnunt Buskus, and h-he was last seen alive in the city of July...July 21st, stardate 01...04..." She looked up at him, blinking her watery eyes to find that the same amount of tears were rolling down his own face, his eyes narrow as if he were to fall down and start crying right along with her.

It was not tears of sorrow that filled him, however, but rather tears of hope and yet disbelief. He couldn't believe it. He just couldn't comprehend it all. This...This was the daughter of Buskus...The man closest in relation to Rem, the last known bloodline to her...All these years he thought those closest to her had died off, that Knives had killed them. The words he spoke of, about 'killing off the last link between him and Rem' as he stood over the bloodied corpse of Buskus, he believed to be true for so long...And yet here she was, searching all this time to find _him_.

But what if she was a fraud, taking revenge on his already tender heart for things he was accused of but had not actually committed? Though, if she was a fraud why did her voice seem so sincere to him? Why did her soul seem to be ripping in two within her eyes as she continued? And how, if anything, could she have known all that she did if she had not been related to him in some way?

"What? Don't you know him? Please, you have to know something!" she began to yell in a desperate plea. "You're my last hope to finding the truth to what happened to him! Is it that you don't know who I'm talking about?! H-he was a larger man, graying on his head, he grew up in Cleveland, h-his blood type was B, he created a new plant theory! Please, Mr. Vash, you must know something! _Anything!_"

Vash quivered a smile of happiness, nodding his head as he spoke. "Yes...I know what happened to him..."

She bit her lip, running her hands though her hair and hunching over again, continuing to cry. This time, however, it wasn't out of dismay, but rather in relief. He patted her on the back, helping her to her feet and out of the bar, to somewhere where twenty people wouldn't be gawking in question, to where Meryl and Milly could help him out on this. The only place he could take her was back to their house, but the only problem was...

What would happen if Knives heard of it?

As they quietly made their way out, a man sitting in the shadows rose from his chair and leisurely walked out into the open barroom where people began to continue on normally. He sat down at a bar stool and raised his hand for the bartender, asking for a piece of cheesecake. The bartender did what he asked, but couldn't help but noticed the wide smirk on the man's face as he ate, chuckling every so often to himself, as if all of that had been amusing somehow...

A metal cup jittered on the wooden table in the quaint kitchen of Vash, Meryl, and Milly as the woman named Katyenka tried to set it down quietly but failed. Her eyes remained down at her hands, dry of tears but still narrow in slight depression. She told them a few things about her, like who she was, where she was from, why she had come, and soon enough she got her answers. Vash told her in limitation to what had become of her father, stretching the truth a little for it seemed quite enough of for her to hear of her father's death and very reason for it without hearing the whole gruesomeness of it. He dared not mention any names, and the girls knew of it too, because if Knives was to happen to get up at that moment who knows what travesties could ensue.

"So, when I found him murdered in his office the city went up in a great flash of light...And that was it," Vash concluded, looking up from his solemn gaze at the center of the table.

Katyenka gave a halfhearted smile, Meryl coming along with a batch of soup she had just whipped up for all of them. Milly sat across the table, her face in an innocent frown of sadness as she heard the story told. "I guess that explains why he had a bullet in the back of his head when they found him..." she replied emptily. As Meryl placed a bowl of soup in front of her, she gasped, her eyes seeming to glaze in small sample of happiness. "Why...t-thank you! So very much!"

"There's no need to thank me, it's only soup! You act as if you hadn't seen a meal in weeks..." Meryl paused, the woman biting her lip as she pushed the bowl forward.

"I-I shouldn't take this...It's your earnings..." she began, Meryl realizing what she had done and shaking her hands.

"No, no! Please, take it! We made extra anyways!" she stated, relieved to find that the woman slowly brought it back to her and began to eat.

Her nimble fingers continued to shake in nervousness, slowly and quietly sipping on her soup as if something was going to jump out and get her if she was any noisier. A silence lingered for a moment as Meryl sat in the last chair at the table--that was, before Milly blew her noise into a tissue that probably people for three blocks could hear.

"Oh, it's all so sad! So you've been living on your own since your father died?" she asked.

"Yes...I think.." she paused for a moment, blinking as she looked up at them. "Well, I remember my life at a young age, where I lived with my grandmother when my father went to go work in July. After he died I stayed for a few years until she passed away, then..." She trailed off in thought, a set of feet scuffing in from the other room.

In moments, a man standing over six feet stood at the left side of the doorway, wearing a baggy white shirt with brown slacks that had uncountable wrinkles. He looked as if in a daze, oblivious to mostly everything around him as he ran his fingers through his shaggy blond hair, trying to get his eyes to stay open. The three of them just stared, the woman continuing to eat her soup as if not even knowing he was there. But the man standing there saw her, however, and kept his eyes narrow as he spoke in a low mumble.

"Who's she?" he asked, trudging his way over to the smell of soup still in its pot over the iron stove.

"Oh, her?" Vash laughed timidly, waving his hand. "She's just a traveler! Yeah, she just came in and she has no place to stay so we decided to let her sleep here! That's all! Nothing important!"

"But, Mr. Vash, what about her search to find you? Don't you remember, you just told her about her father in July, after all!" Milly corrected, smiling childishly as both Meryl and Katyenka stared at him in wonder. Knives seemed to be unfazed, pouring the warm meal into a bowl he had gotten from the upper shelves. Vash mouthed for her to stop while she was ahead, but she couldn't quite take a hint. "Or am I wrong? You did say your name was Kat...Kat...Umm, what was it again?"

"Katyenka," she grinned. "But don't worry, most people have a hard time pronouncing it anywa-" she stopped, hearing a clatter and a splash coming from the stove.

They all turned to see that Knives stood frozen, the bowl now rolling on the floor with the soup splattered all over his bare feet. His eyes went wide, turning slowly with a now flushed face. Becoming distant for a moment, he seemed as if he had seen a ghost but clearly to even him she was alive. Knives shook his head slowly, turning and quickly making his way out while leaving wet footprints on the ground.

Knives had not been out of his room often, but every time he had he would at least get his fill of a meal before heading back into solitude. Yet to see him run out of the room so fast...it was strange to even Vash. Did he know of her? If he did, wouldn't he have tried to start something and not look like he was going to fall over and pass out? It was an unusual happening, but he was glad it turned out the way it did. This way he could break the news about Rem to her in a believable manner, in a way that she could understand the information about her ancestor simply. If Knives had blurted out that she was related to her, it was most likely Katyenka would become confused, not knowing what to believe from them.

In these thoughts the woman sighed, scooting her bowl forward. She remained still in thought until she reached into the bag she had at her side, pulling out a rusty cylinder and turning it until it popped open. What little change she had, about thirty cense, she held out in the palm of her hand, offering it to Vash.

"I-it's not much, but can I ask you if I can take a quick rest before I go? P-please?" she inquired, Vash soon clasping her fingers up around her last bit of money.

"Don't be silly!" he said, waving his had with the most awkward yet amusing face. "Of course you can stay here! You saved me from a whole heap of trouble back there in the bar, it's the least I can do!"

"And you can't imagine how much we have to pay in damages because of it!" Meryl said in a slight scold, glaring at Vash.

"Yes, you did save us one day of overpriced billing, after all!" Milly stated.

"Then...I c-can stay?" she smiled, all three of them nodding as if in unison. Milly stood up, saying that she'd show her to an empty room. As the woman followed, Vash stood, beginning to clean up.

Meryl continued to gaze in thought, and when the two were gone, she rose from her seat, confronting him.

"Okay, Vash, I want to know the truth from you," she proclaimed, sticking a finger in his face as he turned from putting the bowls in the sink. "Who is this woman anyways? And how come you knew about her father, huh?"

Vash sighed, leaning back against the countertop. "Do you remember...a while back when I left to find Knives?"

"Yes, but vaguely. That was over a year ago," she replied, lowering her finger.

"Remember how I told you about the man who was related to Rem? How Knives had killed him and said he killed off the rest of the links between me and her?" he questioned, a pause lingering before he continued. "Well, he didn't...She's that man's daughter, Revnunt Buskus's daughter..."

Meryl's eyes widened, realizing the situation at hand. "So you're saying...that she's Rem's last descendant?"

Vash nodded. "To what I believe yes. And I think Knives already knows..."

"Oh, Vash," she breathed, blinking slowly. At first she thought Vash had brought the girl home from out of sympathy, or that he had dropped to a new low in his standard of pretty women and decided to ask her to lunch. When she asked to stay and Vash did not refuse, Meryl, no matter how strange she found this woman to be, could only find pity for her. Along with her fragile frame, she was both coarsely tanned and sunburned, seeming like she could barely keep her eyes open she was in so much pain. Her eyes had been bloodshot and she looked like she was starving, as if she had not gotten any sleep, so how could she just turn down someone just one day's rest?

"I figured that I shouldn't have said anything about Rem, not until she got some rest at least. She looked as if she hasn't slept in weeks, and with the news of her father I knew it was better to tell her later."

"Yeah, you're right on that. She probably couldn't take in all that information at once, anyway," she said, nodding her head.

As the two continued to chat, just down the hall behind a closed door sat a man still in shock, staring up at the ceiling as he lay on his bed. It had been a year since he was brought back to the dirty human town, and since then had not been able to face his brother in any way. He had been fairly defeated in battle, so there was nothing to compete with anymore. Knives could only be ashamed and humiliated now that he had been beaten by him, that _spider lover_. For a time at least he could have some sort of assurance that he had made Vash suffer in the worst of ways, that he had killed off the last of Rem Saverem. It was now only a lovely faded dream, however, as he laid eyes on that woman who sat in the kitchen. Yes, he knew who she was, even though he was sure Vash was trying to keep it from him. Her life meant he had failed, and the short moments in life where those around Vash died was not a lasting intoxication of satisfaction as it used to be. It was such a killjoy, and those minimal events meant nothing compared to the biggest picture of all.

To what Vash thought, though, was incorrect. His spastic behavior was not for that reason at all, but for something else, something much worse. It wasn't something he should concern himself with, but it was something...that actually proved him _wrong_.

As the sun fell beyond the horizon and the lamps of the town were lit, Vash decided it was time to tell her the truth about her ancestry and why he went looking for her father. She still wasn't up yet, but it had been quite a few hours for her to recuperate and think. The reality was, Vash couldn't hold it in any more. He had to tell her about Rem, the facts that he had kept to himself for so long. It was time to tell the one person who deserved to hear what she had done for mankind.

Vash lit a lantern and carried on up the stairs, the floorboards quietly creaking beneath his feet. Through the open windows he could be heard on the outside, as well as the through the open window of Katyenka's place of staying. The only thing was, the window hadn't been open when she went to sleep...

In the dark, dusty room, lit only by the lights from outside, the new woman to the town slept soundly, tightly wrapped in a thick blanket. From the window, the light, pale curtains fluttered in the breeze, the wind suddenly dying down to reveal a figure standing there, staring with an ambitious amber eye and a large smirk worn on his face. With a flick of a finger the door's bolt locked, the man slowly making his way to the bedside. He stood there for a moment watching, savoring the few minutes of peace before he would take her from this room, this town, and to a place Vash the Stampede would have to travel to with his memories if he ever wanted to see her alive again. Reaching out, he almost put his hand on her forehead before he heard a knock at the door, her eyes slowly peeling open with every knock.

"Hey, Katyenka? You awake in there?" he heard Vash say, witnessing the woman open her eyes wide, beginning to stare up at him in shock

She opened her mouth as if to scream, but all the came was hushed, raspy noises from the bottom of her churning stomach. He just stood there with a wicked smile, feeling like he could laugh at how simple this was. Finally she managed a few words, not a shriek of fear as he thought she would do.

"Y-you're...t-that man...from t-the bus...Who...who a-are you?" she stammered, pulling the covers slightly over her face.

"Who I am is not relevant," he replied coolly, holding his hand over her head. From the outside, Vash could hear his voice, beginning to shout and kick at the door to get in. "But who you are is of the utmost importance." The man stretched his hand as a pulse came from it, her eyes seeming to dilate as she laid there paralyzed for a moment, falling unconscious the next.

In this the door came crashing down, Vash shouting out as he stepped through. At this time the man already had Katyenka in his arms, his back to the window with the light reflecting his shadow across the floor to Vash's feet. Vash stood there, almost terrified in doubt to how this man could be. This man was dead, he had been dead! And he should know, for he was the man who shot him...The man only grinned wider with this inkling of fear he saw in Vash.

"Hello, Vash the Stampede. Remember me? The one you thought you killed atop the cliff of LR Town...Or, at least, who you almost killed?"

Vash remained silent, his hands beginning to shake as he heard voices coming from down the hall. They were distant to him then, being blotted out by the sound of his racing heartbeat. His traumatized state was broken with the shrill gasps of both Meryl and Milly, staying behind in the doorway. How could _they_ forget him, the man who had controlled the villagers to almost kill them, to send Vash into a position to pull that trigger as he did. But was this a ghost they were seeing, for surely he had died on that mountaintop. Was he standing before them with that vile gaze as he held Rem's last descendant in his arms? Whatever it was, nevertheless, they knew one thing was for sure...

This man was Legato Bluesummers, and he was well enough alive to be taken very seriously.

"I'm surprise you only stand there while I hold this woman in my arms. Don't you care what happens to her, the last link to your beloved Rem?" he questioned, Vash's eyes beginning to tear as he suddenly when into a furious rage, lunging for him.

"Give her back!" he shouted, reaching to throw a punch. In it Legato flicked his wrist, making Vash stop in midair and fly back as he skid across the wooden paneled floor.

"You have to try harder than that, but I can see that you are not the man you used to be since the time of fighting Millions Knives. I'll give you fifty days to regain your former strengths and come to get her. I expect you'll have what I desire."

"What?! What are you talking about?!" Vash shouted, standing up as he balled his fists.

Legato frowned, blinking slowly in sincerity. "My memories, Vash the Stampede. I desire the rest of my memories." He turned away, feeling their inquiring stares drill into the back of his skull. "Of course, you could always ask your brother. He knows of what I speak of perfectly. Come to the place where the previous relation died, and if you do not show then the last will be buried there as well."

He raced to the four-by-four window, Vash running after to stop him. As Legato put a foot on the windowsill, Vash saw a beam of light zoom past his eye, a bullet ricocheting off the side and Legato disappearing into the night. Vash came to a halt as he reached the end, gazing out into the street and finding no trace of either of them. He turned to face who had fired at them and risked hitting Katyenka, and it was surprising to find both Milly and Meryl backing away as they shivered in alarm. There stood Knives in the doorway, smoke coming from the barrel of the gun he called Ebony with a scowl on his face.

"Knives...Are you insane?! You could have hit her!" Vash raised his voice in anger, Knives lowering the gun to his side.

"It would have been better than to let him live," he replied, his eyes narrow in thought.

"What?! You mean...that was really Legato?!" Meryl shrilled.

"Of course it was. Who else could have eyes of soulless revenge like that?" he stated, looking to Vash finally.

"Then you do know what he's talking about, don't you?" Vash questioned.

"Yes, because I was the one who took them from him."

The girls gasped as Vash's eyes turned to slits, beginning to grit his teeth. "You knew, didn't you? You knew he was alive..."

Knives scratched the top of his head, shrugging with a grin. "Of course I did! But...I didn't think he'd go this far..." His expression became sober once more. "Vash, we have to find him. Whether he kills her or not he'll never stop until he gets those thoughts of his back, and when he does...I fear that not even I will be able to stop him." The eyes of his brother turned to question, Knives continuing. "You look as if you don't understand. Why do you think I took him as one of my subordinates? His powers could have surpassed that of my own, but his inferior mind could not handle or comprehend such a task at the time when I found him. In a few years, though, all that would have been irrelevant as he realized his true potential on his own. So, I took what made him flawed and what would have made him powerful, the main part of his mind--his memories. He would forget he even had powers, and as I slowly gave back to him what was important he knew only two things. That he had a power second only to the superior race on this world, and that all humans, including himself, needed to be eradicated."

"You're...you're a monster!" Milly blurted out, forgetting who this man was for a moment.

"Don't hate me; I did you all justice by keeping those thoughts from him. Who knows what he could have done," he said.

"What was done in the past can't be taken back," Vash spoke up, stepping forward. "But it can be corrected. We're going to get that woman back..." He stopped in front of Knives, stand face to face with a stern appearance. "And you're going to help me."

Knives paused for a minute then grinned, waving a hand as he turned and walked away. "Whatever. It's not like I want to stay in this forsaking town anyway."

The night went on, Vash making preparations to leave at sunrise as he tried to convince Meryl and Milly that they shouldn't follow him. He didn't know what danger would lay ahead, or rather what danger would be traveling right next to him, and didn't want anything to happen to them. All he could think of was that eye, that amber eye staring at him as he heard their screams, the time where they had followed and that they had almost died. He never wanted that kind of event to repeat itself and it was better to be safe than sorry. Vash made a fair case with this, and they trusted that he would come back safely.

And so as the morning came, Vash and Knives walking the dusty abandoned streets as Meryl and Milly waved goodbye. From an onlookers point of view, they would look like one in the same person, with the same brown ponchos they wore to keep from the wind and their blond hair and blue eyes, (one's hair style slightly differing from the others, however). Once again did the twins stand side by side for the first time in so many years, Ebony and Ivory carried closely by them...


	2. Chapter 2

A/N This part is a bit more choppy scene wise, but it keeps up with events happening else where. Plus, some things might be a tad confusing but it will make sense later on. And thanks very much Kagata for the review! On to chapter two...

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Chapter Two

A buzz rang through her ear before she slowly managed to open her eyes once more, seeing her hands being cuffed to a bedrail by rusty metal shackles. As she turned her head to the side, she noticed the man she had seen in her room was now standing at the foot of the bed, tying her knees together with a cloth. She saw that her ankles where already chained together and tied at the bottom rail, restricting her movement. It wasn't like she could move anyway--she was far too tired to move, too hopelessly weak to even bother to stretch her vocal cords in a plea for help. All she could do was speak in a low mumble, staring up at the man.

"Where am I?" she asked in a whisper, the man not even bothering to look her.

"You're here as my hostage, and I intend to keep you here as long as it is required," he replied, standing back. The long, thin and tattered curtains blew up across his face, the man too in tuned in examining if there were any flaws in her imprisonment to notice. But whichever way the wind blew, only one eye would be shown, and never would his hair covering the other falter.

"Are...you going to kill me..?"

"If need be," he replied, taking a seat in a wooden chair across from her view. "But you are of no use to me dead at this very moment, so it is not something to be concerned about at this time."

She turned her head away, seeing the full condition she was in. Her hands were loose enough to move a few inches and rest on the bed, but her feet were so tightly tied that she felt like the circulation was about to be cut off. She could fell her sunburned skin beginning to peel around both her ankles and wrists, unimaginable pain crawling up her nerves every time she moved. Maybe he found humor in this torture of hers with the smile he wore across his face as she struggled to get free, silencing the rattle of chains and she turned her head to glare at him.

"Why?...Why do you do this? Who are you?"

He laughed. "You're not exactly in the position to be asking questions, Katyenka Buskus. But since you are going to be here for a time, you should know of your captors name. It's Legato. Legato Bluesummers."

"Well, _Legato Bluesummers_," she spoke up from her whispery voice, "you're despicable, and I spit on your grave." She shortly worked a dap of saliva in her mouth, spitting out to the floor at his feet. Before it hit, however, he twitched his fingers, the spit wad suddenly shooting back up and into her throat, making her gag and choke for a few moments. Legato stood, blinking slowly.

"You spit on my grave, but you should know that the many times it has been dug for me I have not been able to lay in it. I suggest you be a bit more respectful the next time I walk into this room, or else you'll be finding I shall be a bit less merciful than what I was intending to be."

In this he turned and walked out the open door, shutting it without even putting a finger down. Her eyes were wide in terror, her lip trembling in shock. It wasn't _possible_ for someone to do that, to shut a door without touching it...was it...?

"Hey, Vash...hold on a second!" Knives shouted from a distance, Vash halting for a moment to let him catch up. It had been a while since Knives had gotten exercise, and although he could have fooled everyone that he was in tip top shape he could not deceive his lungs or his legs. They were sore already, his feet starting to become numb and his throat beginning to burn as he put his hands on his knees to catch his breath. "Can...Can't we stop for awhile? We've been walking for about six hours straight."

Vash smiled, shrugging. "Funny, and I thought you were the athletic one."

"No," he replied in a grin, standing straight again. "See, I was the brains out of the brawn. Physical condition meant as much to me as a human's life, which was, and still is, very low. Of course, now I consider my health a bit more important, but human's are still at the bottom of the list."

Turning away, Vash frowned, sighing. "Don't you have any gratitude, Knives? I mean, after all they did for you. They took care of you while you recovered, you know, and you still think of them the same."

"Well, not quite the same as I first thought," he corrected. "At first, I believed humans were worthless, a mistake on nature's part. But as I grew to know them, I realized that they weren't a mistake but rather were meant to serve us, which lived to do our bidding. It was simple really, and all the time we were living on that ship I hadn't seen it. Human's were there to serve us, for me I came to notice and scratch away some part of the truth. For you, you had your security in that woman, that Rem, but unlike me you refused to see that she was only a servant to you, disposable and insignificant."

Vash didn't know whether it was the heat that made his blood boil more than normal or whether his anger was really that astronomical. But as Knives continued, his hands acted on their own, forming fists at his sides.

"It makes me wonder why you even go after this woman now. What do you hope to achieve, to bring her back in hopes that she'll remind you of the lost Rem Saverem?"

"Legato's going to kill her if we don't get her back," he replied coolly, his shoulders beginning to shake. "And yes...I do hope I can save the last connection to Rem."

"Well, I do trust you'll come to your senses and know that she too isn't worth our time. Just another insignificant spider that will die off eventually."

That crossed the line, snapping whatever was holding him back. He ran with a fist towards his brother, Knives sidestepping and kicking Vash in the back. Tumbling across the sands for a moment, he came to stop, turning around and coming back at him. This time, Knives was too slow to estimate when he would hit, and they both went rolling through the landscape, pulling at each other's faces and doing any damage they could to one another. All the while, they were too in tuned to their brawl to notice their guns slid out from their sides, clattering several feet away from where they finally stopped.

A crack in the air was what stopped their fight, both looking up to find a scrubby man standing over them with an armed shotgun to their faces. He wore a brown hat that shaded his already deeply tanned and whiskery face from the sun, with an adornment of fairly simple clothes that included a dark brown cloak. Knives reached to his side but found no gun there, staring back up as the man suddenly slammed him on the side of the face with the back of the gun.

Vash's eyes widened, looking over to find that both of their guns were a ways away. As he glanced back to the man aiming the barrel at him, he prepared to run, only to find that as he budge an inch he found himself surrounded, five more men surrounding them with their guns armed. Without a moment to counter this move, the man to his side hit him in the back of the head, his nose breaking as he hit the ground, his vision fading to black.

The five men tied their hands behind their backs with rusty iron shackles, lifting them up and onto the back of a truck not far away. They laughed as they tossed them into a caged area, slamming the door and locking it shut. As they started it up and prepared to leave, one of the men saw a glinting in the distance, hopping off the back and heading towards it. He stood over Ebony and Ivory a moment later, grinning ear to ear as he took them into both of his blackened, greasy hands. Heading back, he showed them to the man that would sit next to him in front of the caged, gloating on how much of a high price they would fetch.

But he wasn't just talking about the weapons...

A paper rattled out of the silence, Meryl sipping her coffee as she turned the page. It had been a while since newspapers started circulating throughout the cities, and luckily this town was just around the paper route. This kept them updated on worldly events, anyway, and would help on predicating when Bernadelli would be sending letters for them. The good thing was that there was nothing worse than the monitoring of Vash the Stampede had occurred, so they were able to stay without worry.

As she read calmly, her mind drifted in thought. The news article spoke briefly of how there had been kidnappings on the bus paths out in the desert, around the two hundred mile vicinity of July's rubble. It didn't take her long to connect two and two, and in it stood and went to the window, worry beginning to strike her.

Vash had been gone about a day and a half by that time, and though it was so soon for her worry to kick in this news didn't help any. He and his brother had both been heading for that area, so who knows what had would happen to them out there. She chuckled quietly to herself, walking back over to the table and grabbing her coffee. As she went for a refill she thought how silly it was for her to fret so much. He was a big boy, he had handled worse in his time than a couple of bandits. But, deep down, that's not what really worried her. What concerned her was the fact that his brother could turn on him again, and bandits wouldn't help any if it just happened to come to that.

Yet she sighed, shaking her head and sitting back down. There was nothing she could do about his decisions at the moment and she had business and letters to attend to anyways. As she turned the page of the newspaper again, she couldn't help but think of him and ordeals he might be going through at that very moment...

His eyelids peeled back as the streaks from the sun shined to his retinas, he squinted as he sat up, rubbing the back of his head. He felt flakes of dried blood flick off his hair, rubbing the residue off of his fingertips in front of him and looking at his surroundings. The sun was burning down as the wind whipped through his hair, hearing the cries of others who sat there with him on the back of the moving automobile. There were whole families there, huddling together in fear. Others were unconscious still, redder than a radish in some respects, where the very few tried rattling the cage bars to get the captures' attention. He felt a sickening feeling at the bottom of his stomach as he turned to gaze to his side, seeing Knives already awake with a content look of thought on his face.

"Hey, Knives, where are we?" Vash asked, sliding to put his back on the bars just as Knives was doing directly across from him.

"Don't know. Looks like we came across a couple of bandits searching for 'workers'--at least that's what I've overheard."

Vash saw the condition they were in, the harsh barren landscape looking not so friendly, but knew it was better than staying here. His mind was drawing blanks as to how to get out of this, staring back up to Knives. "Got any ideas?"

"Yeah, but this would be a lot easier if I had my gun," he replied, gazing back with a look of distain.

"Hey, it's not all my fault we lost them!" he retorted, knowing exactly what he was getting at.

Knives just shook his head, leaning forward slightly as he struggled with his hands behind his back. "Now's not the time to argue about this. We should get out of here first." With a quick clack, his hands were brought back in front of him. He rubbed his orange, rust stained wrists, flicking off some of the residue left over from the shackles. "It's a good thing these humans were stupid enough to put on almost rusted through cuffs. Makes it all that easier to escape."

Vash fingered the handcuffs as well, finding that part of it crumbled to the point where he could slip his hands free. Knives looked up front, seeing that all five men were sitting there and only paying attention to the bottles of boos in their hands. All the better, of course, as Knives stood and ran to the back of the cage as quick as he could, people staring after him as he began picking at the rusty chain and lock. Within moments, he snapped them apart, swinging the door open and pausing for a moment, looking back, grinning, and gesturing for Vash to go first. People smiled and got up, some taking those who were still unconscious and jumping past Knives, landing on the desert floor even while the truck was at a constant speed. Vash was last to face him, helping those who hadn't gotten off yet, and having the same expression as Knives had as they hesitated to jump. They didn't trust each other, and they both knew it, but they would have to if they were ever going to get anywhere. So, as if simultaneously, they jumped from the back of the truck, rolling before they came to a complete stop.

They were left in a cloud of dust for a minute or so, coughing as they were helped up by a couple of hands. As Vash smiled and thanked them, Knives shoved them off quickly, those around him backing away in slight fear by his intimidating eyes. Vash just sighed, both of them being addressed by a woman in her thirties with two children by her side.

"Thank you ever so much, sirs. We don't know what would have happened if we had gotten to their destination," she said, smiling gratefully.

Knives said something offensively under his breath, but no one besides Vash seemed to notice.

"Why, it was nothing miss. We were just doing what all good citizens do!" Vash answered in his most heroic voice, getting a few oohs and ahs but making Knives gag a little. He just smiled widely, waving goodbye as they all went their separate ways. Knives questioned to himself if Vash was going to act like that the whole way but it wasn't like he had another choice to this matter. It would all be over soon, he hoped, and soon, he would come to realize, was pretty much a far fetched wish in this circumstance.

Later in the day, four of the operators of the truck were awoken from their drunken slumber to find that the vehicle had come to a stop. The man who was to be driving had gotten out without even shutting the door, swearing his head off on how much trouble they all would be in for letting the workers escape. One of them, still probably not on his hangover yet, said not to worry about it in a slurred motion, the others standing stern on the outside but trembling severely on the inside.

"Nah, whyz you all worryin'?" the drunk one spoke, grabbing the guns Ebony and Ivory at his sides. "Za mans prolly sippin' down sum pillz anywayz! Am I right? Huhz?"

The men did not respond, but only could stare behind him with still, wide eyes. The man shrugged, turning around and seeing what they were all staring at. Before he had a chance to say a word, he was gripping his own throat, dropping the guns to the sands. The man to whom they were staring at reached down, taking the guns in his hands and inspecting them. He looked up with his amber eye, the man beginning to run back and forth as if by force. Shutting his eyes, he aimed the gun a little to the left, estimating when he could fire as the rest of them scrambled to get away and hide behind the backside of the truck.

They heard a shot and a thud to follow, gazing back that the drunken man was now somewhat sober because of his experience, unharmed to say as he dropped the clutch around his neck and inched away. Legato shrugged as he opened one eye to see that there was no damage, putting both guns to his sides and folding his arms across his chest.

"It is a real shame. My aim is becoming poor as I sit around this place. Maybe I should come out and have more target practices..." He grinned at their quivering fear. "So, why did you let them get away?"

"I-it was those t-two blonds, I know it was! They were different, I tell yas!" one of them exclaimed.

"Of course they were. I told you to keep an eye out for them, and what do you do? Give them chains that couldn't hold an infant," he retorted, his smirk fading.

"Oh, was that them?" another inquired, scratching his head.

Legato's expression became an annoyed scowl, reaching his hand out and having the man skid across the dirt and his neck placed within his palm. He dug what nails he had into the man's skin, cutting off his air momentarily. "Yes, it was them, and I should have your eyes ripped out because of this. At least then you would have an excuse to be blind." He threw the man to the ground in a burst of anger, pointing an accusing finger and the rest of them. "I will give you one last chance to find these two. If you fail, do not dare show your face in my presence again. Understood?" With a nod they hurriedly left into the rubble of the city streets, Legato taking Ebony from his side once more as he turned and walked along.

'_So...they really are coming..._' he began to chuckle until it became a full fledged laugh. Those who hid in the shadow heard this laugh come from his lips, and although they weren't quite sure the reason for it, the knew it was something ill that stirred within those thoughts of his.


	3. Chapter 3

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Chapter Three

A creak came from the entrance door, a rattling to follow as she looked up, seeing her captor carrying a tray of bread and a glass of water with assorted other things. Setting the tray down on the dresser at her bedside, he went back to the foot of the bed and loosened the chain length to let her legs move. He forced to her sit upright as he took her shoulders and rested her back on the wall, unlocking one of her shackle cuffs with a key tied around his neck. He reached back and put the tray on her lap, going and sitting in the one and only chair in the room. All this, and he didn't say a word.

She gazed down as to what she was to consume--a small bread roll, a full glass of water, a little soup bowl, and two plain crackers. Katyenka stared back up at him, her eyes narrow.

"Is...this mine?" she asked.

"Of course it is. I wouldn't have set it all in your lap if it wasn't. And if you think you're going to get anymore think twice. That is your one meal you will be receiving for today."

"Today...?"

"_Yes_ today. I'm not stuttering," he bluntly pointed out, Katyenka looking back at it.

"No...it's just...It's funny. This is more food than what I've seen in a month..." She smiled half-heartedly, taking a bite out of the bread with her free hand.

"If you like I can shorten the rations," he replied.

She shook her head. "No, no! This is fine," she responded with a stuffed mouth.

"Then I will hear nothing more of it."

There was a pause, Katyenka glancing over to him every so often. He wore the same baggy black pants, or at least something similar to what he wore the other day, and a black shirt that had become faded in the sunlight. The belt around his waist was a bit to big and had to be tightened to its max, but also held a silver gun to his side, making the one side slouch slightly. She glared it down for a few moments as he stared out the barred window, wondering how far her arm would have to reach to be able to take it from him. As he smirked, however, she turned her eyes away, wondering if he saw her. He took the gun from his side, holding it out in front of him.

"I know what you were thinking, Katyenka Buskus. You were wondering how far you could reach to grab this gun away from me, weren't you?" he stated, Katyenka forcefully pushing her food down in one large gulp. "Except, you had a few flaws in these thoughts. First of all, what exactly would you do if you reached it? I know you aren't very open minded in shooting someone, so what good would it do you then? And even if you managed the courage to pull the trigger there's always the thought of me stopping the bullet before it hits me. You see, in every which way stealing this gun wouldn't do you any good against me."

"Where did you get it?" she asked, trying to get off the subject. "I don't remember you having it yesterday..."

"Why yes, I didn't have it yesterday, did I? Well you should be happy to know it belongs to Vash the Stampede," he replied, her eyes widening as her head turned to look at him. "It was found in the desert, just after he was spotted heading this way."

"You mean...He's coming for me...?" She shook her head. "But why...? He knew my father but it doesn't make any sense. Why would that be so important for him to come and get me?"

"It's not," Legato answered. "There is something else about you and your family that he neglected to say before you were kidnapped. It concerns a woman named Rem. Rem Saverem."

"Rem Saverem..?" she repeated.

The minutes drifted slowly through time as Legato explained all he knew. How Rem was the mother figure to Vash and Knives, taking care of them even though they were a plants. This took a moment or so for Katyenka to digest, but eventually she understood why Vash appeared so young, yet when he had supposedly committed his crimes he had _been_ that young. But he explained Knives had become twisted in hate towards humans and tried to have them all killed by crashing the ships carrying them into the planet's surface. Rem, however, managed to save the rest of the human race from plummeting by reversing the ships' trajectory to land safely. This did not save her, though, as her ship self-destructed a moment later, leaving both Knives and Vash to wander the world for the longest time. Knives still had his hate for humans, and Vash still had his utter bitterness towards his brother for killing Rem and the rest of the crew they traveled with. These years were spent at the expense of Vash's inner agony, remembering the words Rem spoke long ago and living strictly by them. He could not kill his brother, not even out of revenge, for a life was a life, and no one has the right to take that life.

In these years, Legato would say, did Knives create the gun he had in his hand along with another, naming them Ebony and Ivory. They were specifically made for Vash and Knives to use against humans, but when Vash refused he shot his brother in the leg and ran off with both. For years Vash was alone, traveling throughout the various towns and starting to love again the creatures Knives came to hate. He never gave up hope that there was someone he could tell Rem's story to, someone who knew her once and who would believe him. Eventually he came across a group of people still hovering above the sky, who still kept a database of all those who had been on the other ships. He knew that one of them had to have had some relation to Rem, and one did. Katyenka's father. But Knives knew of this long before Vash arrived in July, but the one thing neither of them knew was that Buskus had a family. It didn't matter, though, as Vash walked in and found that Knives had shot the man in the back of the head, sitting on the desk next to the corpse with a grin on his face. All that mattered was that Vash's heart was crushed, thinking that there was no one else to tell, no one else for him to find something of Rem left alive in his life. Vash got away again, but not without loosing an arm and carrying out the destruction of July under Knives's will with Ivory in hand.

"And that's why...why I'm so important? Why he's risking his life to find me...?" she asked with a quiver in her voice.

"Precisely," he replied. "But he is not coming alone. The time in July had passed, and since then Vash had come across many enemies that Millions Knives had sent to find him. He wondered if Vash had changed his mind, and if not would have him dead for the embarrassment he was causing to mingle amongst the likes of humans. Eventually they met in one final battle, and Vash was victorious. Abiding by his moral laws, however, he did not kill him, but rather took him back and possibly change his opinion about humans. Knives, after he had awoken from his unconsciousness, was too ashamed to challenge his brother again, and for a year it so remained. They avoid each other mostly, but every so often he would come out of his room to face the humans who lived there as well. You met them, I believe. Two women, one tall and outspoken, the other with black hair and a bit pestering towards Vash."

"Yes, I know them..." she said, trying to think if she had seen this 'Knives' character. And within a blink, she knew she had. She had seen him, and he had been standing five feet from her. "That man...That man who looked like Vash...He...He was the one who killed my father...?!"

"Yes...But it is of no importance at this time." Legato could see the anger rising within her, and he grinned because of it. She breathed through her gritted teeth, clenching the rest of the bread in her hand as he began to chuckle. "Why are you getting angry? There's no point at this particular moment."

"You told me this...to see me suffer, didn't you?" she began, gazing with narrow eyes towards him. "Didn't you?! I hate you..._I hate you!_" She threw the bread now molded into a ball at his feet, making him look down in surprise long enough for her to bash the metal tray on his head. She reached out to grab the gun, to knock him out on the back of the head with it and shoot her chains, but she came just short as he reached out and grabbed her neck. He hoisted her up and hit her head against the red brick wall, dangling her feet above the bed and glaring with a look of anger in his eyes. She hadn't seen this anger from him before, but as his gaze seemed to pierce through her soul she felt like she couldn't breathe anymore, with or without his hand around her throat.

"Hate is such a strong word, Katyenka Buskus, and you should not use it out of a simple disposition in a simple misconception. It is not that I wish to see you suffer it's just that it eases my own pain to see another person's heart break, although I know it will soon mend. Besides, isn't it customary to say the truth when you are asked a question?"

"How could you ever know when my heart mends?" she spat, Legato dropping her and stepping back.

"I know that it has been torn into pieces since the day you were born, but even if it is one fragment that breaks and mends again then there is no real harm done."

"...Something that's broken...can never really be the way it was again...can it?" she rasped, shaking her head as she hunched over to catch her breath.

His eyes twitched slightly, seeming to have an uncontrollable tic grinding away in his head as his eyes began to water. He could hear his heart beating faster and faster, throbbing in his head as her words began to take shape in a voice long forgotten in his memories. This is how it always began and the way it would hopefully end, in a whisper and a heartbeat. He walked out as he shut the door like the time before, without laying a finger on it. Katyenka just glanced after him, blinking slowly with the realization that he had not tied her up again, and decided she would wait for night to arrive to figure out a way to get out.

Later as the night blanketed the sky, the moon rose high in the iron barred window and all had become still in the outside halls, the lights turned off and Legato apparently asleep. Katyenka sat up in her bed, picking away at the rust on her other cuff to get loose. It would be a long process, but if she could not finish it before sunrise she would hide the hole by her side until tomorrow night.

She didn't know how long time had past, but after quite a bit of scraping with her thumb and thumbnail turning an orange color under the moonlight, she began to hear something. It sounded like a quiet groaning, like someone would do when having a bad dream. She stopped for a moment, pressing her ear against the wall and hearing it even clearer. It lasted for only a few more moments before it was replaced by a fearful and horrified scream, Katyenka jumping up and covering her ears. Silence drifted for a moment until she began to notice a soft crying, frustrated by the sound of it and heading towards anger. Squeaks moved across the floor with the opening of an outside door, a rattling of heavy objects being heard as Katyenka quickly turned herself on her side facing out, pretending that she was asleep just in case he came in.

In fact, her door did come open, a streak of light shining on her face as he entered quickly and shut the door inaudibly to make sure, to what he thought, she didn't arise. From his side the moonlight glinted, Legato's shaking hands seeming to act on their own. She kept her eyes tightly shut to make sure he didn't think she was awake, and because of this didn't know when he raised Ebony to her head, already armed. His eyes were wide as if filled with a pain he could no longer bare, and this was the only way to relieve it.

'_It is her! She is the one who is causing these thoughts, these nightmares of mine!_' he shouted in his head, his lips slowly coming apart and words beginning to form before he pulled the trigger. "She'll die...and the nightmares will die..."

Her eyes came wide to this, looking down the barrel of the gun. Her face turned sickeningly pale with terror, her mouth trembling as much as Legato was at this point. In a few silent moments of whether or not he would pull the trigger or not, he began shaking his head slowly, lessening his grip.

"No...Not again..._Not again_..." he whispered, unarming it and letting it clack on the wooden floor, falling to his knees and grabbing his head. Tears began to run down his cheeks, taking chunks of his hair and beginning to pull harshly on them. All Katyenka could do was sit there and shiver, staring down at him as he continued. "Bloodshed and death brings them on...and more bloodshed and death will only lead to even more pain..."

He looked up at her suddenly, his eyes glazed over with something she never thought she would see in him. From the once cold, hateful eyes he had, these were different, with one factor that gave her almost pity for him.

These eyes that stared up at her were fearful ones. Fearful of life. Fearful of death. Fearful of the uncontrollable misunderstandings that were in his own mind. The words that came from his throat right then made her stop and think for a moment. She couldn't help but to ask herself if wanting nothing but his memories was such a bad thing...

"Why...Please...Tell me why..." he rasped, a second of pause wandering before he stood, rushing out and slamming the door behind him.

The night was a sleepless one for both of them, Legato's sorrow soon short-lived with the embarrassment of revealing it to her, anger taking over as he shouted and threw glass bottles in the outside room. She listened to the shattering and winced every time, scared that he would come back to finish the job. She knew she couldn't stay there any longer, for no matter if she was fed generously or had a roof over her head this man was a psychopath, a loose cannon waiting to go off at any moment. Clawing and even biting at her shackles to get free, after a while she knew it was of no use; the iron was still too far intact for her to just breakthrough. Even though she was defeated well before, however, she continued to scrape until her nails became flat and her fingers began to turn red and sting. Soon enough, she could taste salt on her tongue, putting her hands over her face as she began to cry.

They did not see the likes of each other for days, but they knew of each others existence in the house. It wasn't like they could forget, but only to recall that day and remember that there was still the nagging reality of their being in the next room. No matter how much Legato tried to avoid it, he couldn't help but know that she was there for his memories, and evoking those thoughts only brought back the pain. Katyenka could not get away from this place even if she didn't want to, and it only became worse even if she didn't see him. She would wake up in the middle of the night by his screams of terror, those horrible cries that filled her with so much grief in the thought that any human being, even he, would have to bare such anguish. She couldn't even comprehend what he was dreaming about to wake up every night for weeks on end with the same heart wrenching yell, let alone how long he had been going through it. Though this is what she felt deep down, in her normal train of thought she could probably care less. She wanted out. All she could grasp at that time was getting out of that place, but she knew there was no way. Until he let her go, she would be there, alone and always fearing when and if he was ever going to return.

She never did see him, but one day as she awoke, she reached her arms up to stretch only to realize that the cuffs around her wrists were gone. Sitting up quickly, she curled her legs up under her, seeing that the chains that once confined her were now loose enough for her to run around the room twice. Her knees were still tied together, but the knot could be undone easily, Katyenka standing up and letting her legs get some feeling back into them. She looked around the floor, but didn't find the gun that Legato had dropped there a while ago, sighing in sadness that he had remember it.

A shine caught her eye, gazing over to find a metal tray sitting on the dresser with a glass of water, a loaf of bread, and a small bowl of soup. There was also a note on a piece of crumpled paper, a message writing in blue ink which read, 'Take this as a sign of my apologies'. She raised an eyebrow, curious as to why he would apologize in the first place, but her stomach told her to stop thinking and to start eating. Within minutes she had consumed all of it, resting for a moment in inhale air and not food.

As her stomach turned a few minutes later, she remembered that 'other things' came with eating. Luckily there was a door located on the other wall besides for the entrance, Katyenka giving a sigh of relief when she ran over and saw it was a bathroom. It looked like it hadn't been used in years, with dust collecting on the floor, the sink and tub spouts rusted over, dark and with no windows, but so long as it was there it was best to use it while she could. Her digestive tract turned harshly again, and without another thought rushed in and shut the door behind her.

Later in the day, she discovered that the entrance door was locked and she would have to wait patiently and silently with the tray in her hand until someone came to make an escape. It wasn't like she didn't have any time on her hands; with a full stomach and more energy than she had had in a long time, she could wait without sleep for days. But she wouldn't have to wait days, for as the sun was just setting beyond the horizon, with an orange glow cascading over her in the corner, the door opened as she stood behind it. Legato entered, and as she tried to reach out and hit him over the head, she felt her muscles tighten, her limbs locking up before she could strike the blow. Shutting the door, he swiveled on his feet to face her, as if all this time he knew she had been standing there.

"I see you received your food," he said calmly, taking the tray from out of her hands and placing it over on the dresser.

When Katyenka felt her paralyzed state dwindle, she raced for the door, turning and pulling at the handle to get out, but finding it locked. Yet she persisted, shouting and banging her shoulder to break it down, though it was to no avail. Legato knew this but let her continue as he took a seat in the chair, staring down at the floor for a time. This went on for two or three minutes before he glanced up at her, yelling over her noise.

"When are you going to give that up?" he asked, Katyenka stopping as she slid to the floor with her hands on the door, shaking her head.

"Never...I'll never give up." She flipped over, her legs under her. She stared at him fiercely as she continued. "You're deranged, you know that, right?"

He smiled, tipping his head towards her. "Charmed. _Really_." He sat up and twisted his chair under him, facing her and casting a shadow in her eyes from the sunset outside. "But before you do leave, wouldn't you like to know why you're here? Why I am being so kind to you, maybe?"

She nodded her head slowly, fixing her gaze to him as he spoke.

"Your voice. It is...something in your voice that is stirring these thoughts of mine. For the longest time I could control my nightmares, but after that day when I hurt you I haven't gotten one restful night's sleep."

She smirked half-heartedly. "Yeah... I know..."

"Then you know this isn't any good for either of us. That is why I have taken steps to repair that. I thought that instead of avoiding the problem I could try to be nicer, that maybe if you were at least slightly restful my dreams would be as well..."

"But why am I the cause?" she blurted out softly, shutting up in dread that he would snap back.

"I don't know why, but the nightmares from when they had no sound are now filled with screams of terror and dismay and your voice...brought that all to form. I don't know how to stop it but I thought that as my last resort maybe telling you...I thought that it might get rid of them." He shook his head as he laughed lowly in his throat, shrugging. "But that's not really what you wanted to know, now was it? You want to know why you're here, don't you? Well...my life is but a blur to me. All I can remember is the time I spent working for Millions Knives..."

Her eyes enlarged, disbelief filling her. "Y-you...worked for Knives? The same Knives..."

He nodded. "Yes. But I hadn't known him before your father died. To what I remember...Millions Knives took my memories away and gave me the ones he said were 'only necessary for achieving our goals'. That goal was destroying the human race. I don't know why I hated them, I just knew I did, and that everything Millions Knives said was right. I felt as if I were a puppet, being pulled along by strings without any free will or thought. The things I did...I can't explain. I didn't want to kill, I knew I didn't, but for some reason it came so easily, as if I were watching and someone else was doing the things I did. Eventually I was inside myself and I could no longer take the sin weighing on my shoulders. I wanted it to end so much that I stooped so low as to listening to Millions Knives, to make Vash suffer for all eternity...In which way, I would fulfill my wish in dying and make Vash responsible for it. Although, I knew that in death there would be something missing, something that I had lost and that I would just give up if I died by his hand. So I faked my death, by stopping Vash's bullet to the point where I would still live, but to where it would look real enough. This, however, lead to my understanding, to the unraveling of memories that he had missed. I lost some of the powers I had, some of the memories of what I had done in my service, but I received remembrances I never knew I had experienced. In this I knew that Millions Knives was the one who took my life away. I don't know how, I don't exactly know why, but I know it was him. I can see his face at the end of my nightmares, laughing...What every other memory means, though, I do not know. I see people, happy and carefree. I see myself in reflections in the exact same way. Then I see her...the woman who's face I cannot see. I see her sitting in an alleyway, then I see her laughing in a dusty house, then on a porch, then in my arms...But, in all this happiness, my good dream ends, turning to darkness." He looked down at his hands, as if in his dreams then. "I see blood on my hands, and I see the same jolly people staring down with eyes of distain. As I gaze down, I see the woman I once knew now lying there in a pool of blood. I can see her smiling lips and the handprint I leave on her face as her head falls back onto the cracked ground. Then all is dark and I hear the screams, only to open my eyes to find a field...and field of bodies with guns lying in their hands..."

He looked up at her, only to find her shaking, tearing at the eyes. It was not easy for her to say cold when all that he said was actually his life, in his nightmares. Legato stood, blinking slowly.

"This is my life, my memories and my nightmare. Hopefully by telling you this it may get us some sleep," he chuckled, Katyenka only continuing to stare. He waved his hand, Katyenka feeling like she was lightly being lifted and helped over as her feet moved by themselves over to the bed. She sat down, Legato walking over the door without another word.

The thought of escape past her mind right then as he unlocked the door and opened it, one final question to be asked from her mouth. "Wait! So...you were hurt by him too?"

He gaped back, replying, "Countless people have been hurt by him, Katyenka Buskus. But at least we have that much in common." He smiled and turned away, closing and locking the door behind him.

There was no disturbance that night, no scream to be heard and no cries to follow. Only the peaceful sound of the wind and the beautiful moonlight shinning through the windows. Katyenka couldn't sleep that night, mostly for the fact that she didn't want to wake up and be scared out of her skin. But as the night lingered, she could faintly hear the sound of laughter coming from the next room, and gave her the reassurance that maybe a peaceful night's sleep was possible after all...


	4. Chapter 4

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Chapter Four

Meryl sat there as she searched through her mail, listening to Milly chatter on about her day at work. She tried very hard to pay attention but her frustration was just accumulating with every letter she opened. Bill after bill, notice after notice...Every one just seemed to give her more and more thoughts of him, more and more worry as to where he could have been at that very moment. He did this to her the last time he was gone, Meryl getting this sinking feeling in her stomach that something bad had happened. Although she would never admit it to anyone, she felt like she could get up right then and go hunting for him. After all, that was their job, to keep and eye of Vash and keep him out of trouble, wasn't it?

Milly could see her distant gaze as she stared at the letters, looking like she was reading between the lines and not actually knowing what they said. She blinked with a moment of pause, Meryl gazing up in the silence to see her smiling face.

"What?" she asked as if she were being accused of something.

"You're thinking about him, aren't you?" Millie inquired, Meryl quickly turning up her nose.

"Of course not! What would give you that idea?" she said, shuffling her papers to get one stack all in order.

Milly frowned slightly, (if it were ever really possible for her to frown). "Well, aren't you worried about Mr. Vash just a little?"

"No, he's a grown man and he can take care of himself."

"But I never said he couldn't take care of himself, I just asked if you were worried," she corrected, Meryl knowing she had been caught in her act. She cleared her throat, though, and grabbed a few more letters to go through.

"Yes, well, now's not the time to be thinking about what he's doing. He's probably just at some tavern in some town telling the bartender to put his tab in the name of the Bernadelli company..." She trailed off in thought, papers beginning to crumple in her hands as she imagined the things Vash was getting himself into. Getting more places shot up and more bills sent home, chasing after pretty women only to make a fool of himself in front of everyone. Milly saw the burning fury in her eyes and began to whimper in fear, Meryl suddenly standing up and slamming her fist into the table. "That's _IT_! Milly, we're going after him!"

"But, Meryl!" she exclaimed, watching as Meryl left the unopened bills on the table and storm off into the other room. "What about all these unpaid bills?"

"They'll have to wait until we get back!" she yelled, going upstairs and turning into the first room. A few moments later she came back down with a small carrying bag, rushing back into the kitchen and grabbing a few foods that wouldn't spoil for awhile.

"But Meryl," Millie spoke as she watched her pack, "weren't they headed for July? What about those bandits we heard about?"

"We'll just have to keep an eye out, that's all," she turned around when she was finished, smiling. "Besides, we're not doing our jobs unless we're watching him, and we're not getting paid to just sit around!"

Milly nodded. "You're right, Meryl! It's about time we had another adventure!"

"Okay then! Let's get going, Milly!"

And just like that they were off in search of Vash, figuring that they should take the bus to the town nearest to July, (being that there were no bus routes to July anymore). It was strange to both of them that Meryl would do something so on a whim, but the deed was being carried out and there was no turning back.

It was a yellow bus they traveled in, with hard seats and crammed front to back with people, but somehow, as they wheels rolled through the desert, the bumps seemed to jog her memory. She remembered sitting there, in almost the same seat on a different bus, looking over and seeing them arguing far back in her mind. But now there sat a mother and a child, sleeping from the long journey they overcame and the long journey they would have yet to overcome. She smiled in seeing their peaceful faces, but sighed in sadness in comparing it and remembering how much it looked like his...

Meryl turned her gaze from where she stared out the window, seeing Milly's eyes fill with tears.

"Milly, what is it? What's wrong?" she asked, Milly quickly wiping her tears away and smiling.

"Oh, it's nothing. I just had something in my eyes," she fibbed, gazing back in front of her again. She felt so silly for doing the one thing he wouldn't want her to do, and that was to cry over him. He had always hated it when she was sad, always seeming so depressed. It might have been a coincidence, but she figured if she was sad he would be sad, and that was no way she wanted him to be. She would be strong and smile even if her heart was breaking a little, and that was the way she would remain. This is the way Mr. Wolfwood would have wanted it.

"Milly, are you sure you're alright?"

She hesitated to answer, but soon smiled widely and said, "Yes, of course I am! There's nothing like a beautiful day and a wonderful bus ride to get the spirits up!"

In the back of her eyes Meryl could see Milly was lying, but had no time to confront her with it as the bus came to a sudden halt, people standing in the aisle falling forward. The bus doors opened quickly and the bus driver held up his hands with a gun aimed at him by one man, another entering and searching the bus. He stepped on those who had fallen on the floor, people cowering as the approached with his gun and slightly sighing as he passed.

"Look, man, just find two! It's not that big a deal!" the man aiming his gun as the bus driver spoke, the other continuing to make his way to the back of the bus.

"Yeah, yeah," he mumbled as he past Meryl and Milly, Meryl's eyes watching the man ahead while Milly looked over her shoulder to find that the man grabbed the mother's arm who sat almost directly across from her. "Get up, the both of you! Move!"

If it was one thing Milly couldn't take at this point it was to see the mother get smacked in the head as her little boy cried for her. In this she stood, shouting for the man to cut it out. Meryl stood as well, grabbing a handgun from her side and pointing it at the man, saying not to make another move. But the man was fact, taking Milly around the neck and aiming the gun to her head.

"So we got ourselves a couple of volunteers do we? Well, that is, if you don't want to see your friend's head bleed from the other side. Believe me, you walk now, we're under orders not to hurt our new workers, so just come quietly and we won't have to make a fuss out of this."

Meryl, in having no choice but to comply, lowered her weapon, Milly being knocked forward and the man taking her gun, pushing her along as well. At this point Meryl questioned herself as to why she had gone after Vash, why she had been so stupid to get them into trouble like this again. This was the very reason why Vash felt so badly and why he had to make the one and only decision that lead to that terrible outcome. She could only hope he would never have to make that kind of decision again because of this...


	5. Chapter 5

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Chapter Five

A light came from the bottom crack of the door, reflecting off the floor and into her open eyes. She was half asleep by that time, coming alive again as she heard small clicks hit the floor outside, little white capsules rolling through the crack. Sitting up, she reached down, picking them up and examining them as some sort of medication. She saw more roll across the seams of the wooden floor, picking them up and setting them on the dresser. Something glass hit the floor and rolled, too big to fit through the crack but dark enough to block the light and cast a shadow. Walking over softly and kneeling down, she peered through and saw the label of the bottle which obviously held the rest of the capsules. She blinked slowly, that label familiar to her somehow, as if she or someone she knew long ago took those pills. If it was one thing she could remember, though, it was that these things in too big amounts weren't good for you. In fact, something in her mind told her that these things weren't good in the first place, that no one should take artificial relief for something that could be conquered over time. The pills were just hiding something that would eventually come back, and if you could not take on this pain without it then you would become a slave to it.

She knew who it was that took them after a moment of thought. It was her father, so long ago when she was a child. She remembered her father telling her that her mother hadn't made it to the planet, that it was just them with her grandmother. She remembered staring up at him when he was eating breakfast and dinner, how he would take his white pills and smile at her, patting her head. He would say that its what adults took when they were sad, something children should never have, but as she grew older she could see past that lie. Those pills were something _no one_ should have to take, and when he past away she finally confronted her grandmother about it. She told her the same thing she had thought for years, that those who took it were happy by erasing those thoughts for a time but were enslaved to it as their condition only got worse. She always wondered what her father was feeling right before he died, whether he was at least in temporary happiness or in his lowest of lows.

This was not something she wanted anyone, not even Legato, to feel. She didn't want to have someone suffer like her father did, to only have their pain get worse and worse with every use and every untreated day. For some reason, after the few words they exchanged over the weeks, something began chewing at her heart. Guilt, in a word, could have been the reason, but whatever it was it only got worse with every smile she saw, every empathic moment she shared. She couldn't just let him do this, to be there and watch him kill himself from the inside out. So, on a whim, she did the only thing she could think of doing. She snatched what pills she could from out of the bottle and on the floor, going to the dresser, taking what she had collected before, and walking into the bathroom. Tossing them into the toilet, she pulled the handle without a second deliberation, blinking a moment later in realizing what she had just done.

She had saved him from his slavery, yes, but it was most likely he would have her head for this. Those pills are what also kept in his anger towards his pain, and if he had no prior treatment she could only imagine how much damage his nightmares had caused him. So she sat in the dark, her breathing becoming heavy in hoping he would not come in to strangle her for her deeds, and if he did she prayed he would not find her sitting there.

Holding her breath, she could hear footsteps coming from the other room and into hers with the creak of the door, shutting her eyes tight as she could see the light from a lantern coming through the bathroom entrance. She tensed up, huddling in the corner the best she could before finally the footsteps came to a stop. A hand fell upon her shoulder, Katyenka looking up only to find Legato smiling wide, in a happy way no less.

"Found you," he said with a laugh, his eyes seemingly in a daze as he stood up straight again and jogged out.

She sat there for a moment to let her heart slow, standing up progressively as she guided herself out with a hand on the wall for support. The light from the outer room filled her eyes as she laid gaze on it for the first time. It wasn't anything special; just a table with two chairs and an iron stove in the back corner with a sink next to it. What interested her the most, however, was the screen door that had no lock and that lead to the outside world. She eyed that first and then Legato, sitting in one of the chairs with his head in his hands, appearing different from what he had shown just a moment ago.

"My pills...I saw them roll into your room. What did you do with them?" he questioned, Katyenka clasping her hands in front of her as she stared at the floor.

"I...flushed them..." she replied, Legato beginning to chuckle.

"And _what_ gave you this idea?"

"I...I've seen it happen before. Those pills--they enslave you, make you think you're getting better but you're really only getting worse."

"And what? You were concerned about my health? _My_ health?" he spat, gazing up at her.

"No! Well, I mean...I saw my father get like that and I just don't want to see it again. That's all."

He paused for a moment, tapping his fingers on the table as he leaned back. "Well, it doesn't really matter anymore. They stopped working days ago. My dreams are now occurring while I'm awake."

"You mean like hallucinations?" she asked.

"Worse...They feel so real, I actually believe they're happening..." He sighed deep in his throat, scratching the top of his head as he waved his hand. "Come sit down. It's not like either of us are going to get any sleep."

She hesitated for a moment, but then walked over, taking a seat across from him while eyeing the door briefly. There were only a few feet keeping her from escaping, and in time she knew she would have her chance.

"So tell me, who gave you the right to get rid of the medication?" he grinned, an offended look smearing across her face.

"No one. It's just that you should face your problems without help from a drug that can make you dependant on it, that can kill you if you refuse to take it."

"And you would know of problems that bad," he retorted, standing up and beginning to walk over to the stove where a tea kettle was starting to whistle.

She narrowed her eyes. "Yes, in fact, I do have problems that bad. But that's of _no importance_ to you, apparently, so it isn't something you should care about."

He laughed, nodding his head as he lifted the kettle off the stove and over to the sink. "Yes, it isn't, is...it..." His eyes glazed over once more, dropping the kettle just before it reached the sink.

Katyenka jumped up in surprise, watching as the boiling water splashed across the floor and trickled through the cracks as Legato stepped over it without even seeming to be fazed by it. Her anger was washed over by question as he smiled at her gently, standing back as he approached.

"What?" she asked timidly, but it wasn't what he heard or saw.

'_What?_' he heard ringing through his mind with a laughing voice, the woman with a face he could not see standing there in place of Katyenka. The surroundings were different, with a smaller room and a weaved hammock stringed in the corner, but the table and chairs were still there in a blur to him. The woman's giggle continued while Katyenka looked at him in horror as he took her hand and put his other on her waist.

'_Legato, cut it out!_' the woman would laugh, beginning to twirl with him as they began to dance while Legato hummed the music. Katyenka couldn't escape his grip and had to go along as he chuckled and said he was sorry every time he stepped on her feet. He stared down to try and watch what he was doing, seeing scarred bare feet from Katyenka's cheap tattered shoes and hearing laughter from her worried noises in her throat.

Although he could not see her face, he didn't seem to realize what he was experiencing was just a dream. That or he just didn't care, wanting that feeling of happiness to never end. As he gazed up into the face he could not see, Katyenka looked into his eyes and saw something. It was something she saw in a couple's eyes as they walked with each other down the street, something seen in children's eyes towards their family, something that no amount of money and no amount of drugs could grant. It was that sometime people would describe as being truly in love and being loved in return, and it was something that was hard to take away from someone, even in death.

"What is your mind showing you now?" she whispered, her soul turning soft. "You see her, the woman without a face, don't you...? She died...didn't she?"

Legato's beat slowed, the woman in his mind being drawn close and his reach pulling her towards him, Katyenka no longer resisting him and playing the part like the woman in his head. Her eyes began to fill with tears in the thought of her father's death, how in so many ways were they the same. The only difference was she could at least remember her father, but Legato...Legato didn't have any memories of his love. He was alone, with only these simple dreams to remind him of the life he once had. No wonder he kidnapped her to get his memories back; she didn't know how she could go on with knowing she at least had something once but not knowing what it was.

"I'm sorry...Legato..." she spoke as he put his head against hers, humming the ending.

The moment lingered for the longest time, Legato's one amber eye that was exposed faded into bliss as he opened his mouth to say something more, but all that came was a choking sound. He stood back, grabbing his chest as he rasped for breath. Katyenka stared in confusion, wondering if that was part of his dream as well as he fell back, falling back and hitting his head against the stove. In that instant Katyenka looked back to the door, finding it the perfect time to escape. He held out a hand as she ran for it, stopping as he spoke.

"Wait...please...don't go..."

'_I'm going to go get help, Legato. I'll be right back, okay?_' the woman reassured to him as she ran out, but Katyenka said no such thing, opening the screen door and running out without another glance back. In this Legato gained a double vision of sorts, seeing both the woman with no face and Katyenka run outside through two different doors, Legato realizing what had just happened.

Katyenka could hear him scream in agony and in anger, running as fast as she could to wherever she could without looking back. She ran out of an alley the house was situated in, her feet coming to a sudden halt as she gasped, shaking her head in disbelief.

"No...This is..." she began, staring up at the broken buildings and rubble reflecting the moonlight. She could picture everything about this place, from when she was a child to when she came back for the last time. This street lead to her father's work a few blocks down, where it used to be lined with restaurants and bars for those who just arrived in town. She could smell the sweet sent of flowers that had been artificially grown and put out for sale. She could hear the clacking of wooden marionettes a merchant sold a few shops down on the street. It was all coming back to her now...All of it. That included the time when she came back, when she stared up in that very same spot and cried as they medical staff from five different towns did the clean up of the corpses lying everywhere. That included her searching through her father's office only to find half of him lying underneath a slab of stone...

Her throat tightened, her breathing becoming erratic as she grabbed her head and shook it violently as she ran, screaming for the images to leave her. In the silence of the night people for more than a mile could probably hear her, so it was no surprise when she ran into someone and fell back. She gazed up with watery eyes, seeing three scrubby men standing over her with grins on their faces.

"Hey sweet thing, what's a pretty girl like you doing out so late, huh?" one of them said, reaching down and picking her up by the wrist.

She screamed and clawed the man's hand with what nails she had, getting free and running in the other direction. The other two ran after her as the third went around to cut her off, eventually making her run down a dead end. She put her back against the brick wall, covering her face with her arms as she slid to the ground. It seemed to ironic that the moment she escaped from one problem, she immediately found herself in another, her mind balancing thinly on a sanity wire that was bound to snap at any time. She had tried so hard to forget about July only to find that she was standing in the thick of it, remembering all that brought her pain and sorrow. Her subconscious laughed at her stupidity, asking why she hadn't saved one, just _one_ of those pills for herself.

As the man reached down once more, the three of them snickered, commenting on how much 'fun' it would be. But the lead man stopped, suddenly being forced forward and cracking his forehead into the brick, blood beginning to flow down. The man got up slowly to find that the other two were already trembling in their boots, stumbling forward to speak with him. She looked past them all to find Legato standing there, his eyes back to the way they had been from the start--cold and hateful.

"I warned you not to come back but like the insignificant parasites you are you couldn't help but disobey, could you?" Legato said spitefully but in a monotonic voice.

"Ah, c'mon, Legato, we just haven't left yet is all," he turned back to Katyenka who continued to quiver in fear and in loosing her mind. "We just wanted to get one last drop of honey before we flew this beehive."

He reached for her again, but this time he was forced up straight, his arms suddenly being lifted and pulled back farther than humanly possibly. In this his skin began to tear, blood spraying out at Katyenka as his bones cracked and began twisting at every joint in ways that it shouldn't have. Legato's eyes were narrow with his hand raised to him, blinking slowly.

"Wrong answer," he breathed, the other two men fearing for their lives as he continued. "Consider yourselves fired. If I ever catch you in this town again so be it your fate will be much worse than what he has suffered here tonight." He dropped his hand and the man fell to the ground, shouting as he suffered more than he probably would for the rest of his life. The other two helped him up and ran out as quick as they could, Legato eyeing them down to make sure they were out of his sight for good.

But he turned back with Katyenka's shrilling scream, watching as she began mutilating herself. She tried wiping the blood on her arms away and even when there was none there she scraped until her arms became beat red. She shouted like she was mad, as if something were tearing her apart from the inside as she tore at her skirt and sleeves and threw them as far as she could. When she felt like she could do no more, she continued scratching at her arms, legs, and face, curling up tightly in terror. He walked over to her slowly, kneeling down and putting a hand on her forehead to see what was wrong with her. In that blinding instant, as those images past of the corpses of July, finding her own father's body, watching people suffer and die even in her own hometown with her hands soaked in so much blood, he finally understood. He knew what she meant about her heart mending, about how she, too, had 'problems that bad'. It was a mystery as to why he hadn't seen these things before, but the only thing that matter was that he knew them now.

Taking her by the shoulders and under her knees, he carried her back to the house, trying to keep her from tearing her skin off. Her eyes were distant then, in her own nightmarish world that was her mind. All he could do was try to get her to stop, taking her back into the bathroom and running the water in the bathtub for a few minutes. He didn't know how to be kind, how to give her comfort and to snap out of her trance-like state. Clasping her hands together was all he could think of to keep from clawing herself, holding her head up and trying to keep her awake. When the tub was filled enough, he set her in, the water turning red as the blood seeped off her skin. She calmed at that moment, her eyes rolling back as her breathing became normal again. He could see that her dress was stained badly enough that it would never come clean, so he stood in knowing she would need a new change of clothes. Walking out, he return a minute later with an extra pair of pants and a shirt that had dust collecting on them, setting them down on the floor as he kneeled back down next to her. Her eyelids came open little by little until they were tired slits, staring in front of her as she gave off a sense of peacefulness.

"Is anyone there?" she asked quietly.

"Yes, I am here, Katyenka Buskus," he replied, surprised a bit that she wasn't affected by the fact that she ended up back where she started from.

"What happened...?"

"You were attacked and I found you just before you were hurt. You...were in shock and so I brought you back here."

She smiled, reaching out of the side to find a hand. He took it with his right without thought, a hesitation drifting between them to speak as she tilted her head.

"These hands...are those of a person who has worked hard his whole life..." she struggled for breath slightly, her eyes becoming wide.

Legato shut his eyes, seeing what she saw, knowing what she knew at that very moment. For some reason everything was in a blur to him and yet he could hear laughter, becoming dizzy as it became louder in his head. Soon enough he was forced to open his eyes before he made any sense of it, find that Katyenka was staring at him.

"I saw it...I saw my life...what I had forgotten long ago..." she said, slipping her hand away and sitting up straight. "I thought...that there had been nothing...But to what I _remembered_ I had a life after my grandmother died. I don't know what it was...but I know that by feeling I at least had some days of happiness before I awoke in a completely different town. I thought all that had been before was a dream...But it wasn't...and those images prove it! You saw it, didn't you?"

"If you're talking about a few blurred images-"

"No, no! It was clear! I could see myself smiling, standing out in the sunshine and laughing, younger than when I awoke as but older than when I thought my life ended...I can't explain it, I can't understand what ended it, but I know it happened once..."

He got up, walking over and standing in the doorway. "I knew you had a gap in your past, where the last of your family died to when you awoke in the hospital of a strange town. This is where you met those travelers who knew of Vash. I thought that would be all that was important, but I didn't expect that gap to be so important to you. Though, I am glad you know at least some time in your life, even if it was for a short part, was a happy time..." His figure remained stern but she could see he held a heavy heart with those words. "There are clothes on the floor there for you. If you need anything I will be outside." In this he walked out and shut the door, this time using his hand instead of his powers.

The door to the bathroom opened with Katyenka rubbing her arms to keep from shivering minutes later. She tried not to show that she was cold, but it was hard not to be when she was still wet. Legato had just walked in with a bundle of blankets, seeing her standing there with a chattering jaw and a blushing red face of embarrassment. The fact was she felt like a fool wearing such a baggy shirt and pants that were so big that the belt around her waist at its tightest setting needed the assistance of one of her hands. He could see her wet undershirt strap as she clenched her collar, trying be as modest as she could but feeling like she should just back away into the bathroom again. Standing with a thick, dark green blanket in hand, he put it over her shoulders before she crept back into the next room, letting her clasp both ends. He rubbed her arms for warmth, her teeth slowly stopping their chattering as he spoke.

"I'm sorry I could not find you any other clothes. Those were the only ones around, although I know they were a bit dusty."

"No, they're fine. Thank you, Legato," she replied.

"I'll find you a different belt tomorrow. But for now that will have to do." He stood back, going to the door. She stopped him, though, by asking him something he wasn't quite expecting.  
"Legato...Can I ask you something...?"

"Yes? What is it?"

"I remember you saying that you hated humans when you worked for Knives, but with that look I saw a while ago...as you stood behind those men...Tell me, do you still hate them? Do you hate your own kind?"

He hesitated to answer. Looking back over his shoulder, he said the most truthful thing he could at the time. "Something happened to make me hate them so, even before Millions Knives stole my memories, and I have never forgiven them. So yes, I still hate them, with a bitter distain. In fact, I am ashamed to be compared to them."

"You know, not all are like those you came to disgust," she replied quietly.

"Yes...But it is very hard to trust, especially when you don't know if they'll do it again."

"But what did they do?"

He did not reply for a time, but stood in the doorway, staring out in thought. "Get some sleep," he said. "Vash the Stampede and Millions Knives will be here soon."

"Wait!" she yelled, bringing him to a halt again.

"Yes?"

"I want to help you as much as I can. I...I won't try to escape again. Promise..."

He grinned, nodding his head. "I know. But thank you anyways."

She smiled as he walked out and shut the door behind him, sitting down on the bed. Looking up and out the window in seeing the sun rising, she could remember the first time she had looked out that window, how she was scared out of her mind and wondered if she was ever going to get out of there. At that moment, she wasn't really scared anymore and not really concerned on when she would leave. From the once cold blooded killer she saw him as, he had changed into a kinder soul, one that only wanted to find the truth as any human being would have. She only hoped it would go well when he did get his memories back, that he would find satisfaction and happiness in knowing the things he missed the most.


	6. Chapter 6

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Chapter Six

The dusty sands of the surface slowly faded into darkness as Knives lead the way to a lift down into the ground, the light of the sun vanishing to make way to a muggy void. It surprised Vash that no one seemed to notice this place, right outside of the town of Dimitri, but it was here and, from the looks of things, had been here for quite some time. Dust shot up as they stepped, being seen by a dim glow coming from across a bridge they were traveling on. As they came to a door, Knives dusted off a control panel, punching in a few numbers and the door sliding open loudly before revealing a blue light down another hall.

Knives had seemed oddly silent for quite some time on this trip. Vash thought he might have made wise cracks about the human race or about some of the stupid things they did a long, long time ago before they even arrived on this planet, but no. He remained contently silent. Although he had gotten a few peeks at his gaze, he could never really see what his attitude might be, if he were thinking funny thoughts or angry ones. But as they made their way down, the artificial blue light becoming brighter, Knives began to speak his mind.

"Vash, I've been thinking," he said, Vash perking his energy to his hearing rather than his now grumbling stomach.

"Yeah?" he replied.

"We've been traveling for like, what, six weeks now? And it's been two since we came across those humans? Well, for some odd reason...I keep thinking of that child's eyes, the ones that stared up at me with a smile while her mother spoke to you. She just stared with this look that...that made me _feel_ something. Happiness--yes, that was it, happiness towards what I did, towards the fact that I had saved her." Vash looked at him in question as Knives began to laugh. "I know that sounds really stupid coming from me, but it's true, I kid you not!"

Vash smiled slightly. "Maybe you're finally starting to come around."

Knives's eyes narrowed in thought. "Yeah...as much as I don't want to admit it...maybe I am."

It was all Vash could hope for. All he wanted was tranquility between the two of them, for Knives to finally accept humans for their kind and gentle sides that most had. For the longest time he wondered if Knives would ever admit that he had done wrong, that humans weren't so bad after all, _that the spider and the butterfly could live together peacefully_! Well, he wouldn't go as far as saying that, but at that time he began to regain trust that Knives was beginning to accept this truth. It was all he could ask for, and he just hoped it was finally coming true, that Knives was finally coming around.

As they were coming to the end, Vash couldn't help but look up as they entered a large room filled with glowing blue capsules from the floor that sank beneath them to the ceiling high above. Although they seemed serene the filaments inside some of them were sparking, a buzzing ringing through his ears as he watched Knives keep walking to the end. Knives stood there for a moment, tapping his foot twice and another control panel, this time on a podium that shot up from the floor, appeared in front of him at waist level. After pressing a few buttons, another panel slid out from the end of the walkway, a blank, black screen being seen. Vash gazed over Knives shoulder, watching as he popped in a disk that was already lying at the top of the podium with several others. In this he pressed a few more buttons to access something and images began to circulate across the screen.

Vash stared for a moment, recognizing Legato immediately. Though, there was a problem with this Legato being shown in mirrors and in bottles. Every so often he would smile, and this smile would not be a cynical one, but rather of joy.

"Knives, is this what I think it is?" Vash asked.

"If you think it's memories, then yes, it _is_ what you think it is," he replied with a grin.

He glanced in puzzlement. "But how, exactly, did you get them into this form? It's not like you can just yank someone's thoughts out of their head!" He laughed at the idea, but hesitated when his brother did nothing. "Can you...?"

"Actually, Vash, it's not so much yanking but more of transmitting," he said, Vash raising an eyebrow. "You see, memories are stored in the brain as waves and if you can get to the nerves that can transmit those waves then you can reroute them and store them in anything that can store electric impulses. Example...hmm, let's say a video recorder."

"So...then...how can you see them if they're just electric impulses?"

"How can you see something when it's recorded and then fed back into a screen? Remember the planets we saw on the bridge? Those weren't really the planets but rather the recorded images of them."

"Yeah but these are _memories_, not something that's right there and can be recorded."

"Again, it's all a matter of brain waves and technology."

Vash stopped for a moment, knowing this wasn't getting anywhere. Instead, he thought of the matter of getting to them. "So how exactly do you get to a nerve in the brain?"

"Well, there's two ways," he said, continuing to sort through the information. "One, you can go through the spinal cord, but with that method you run the risk of paralyzing them. Two, however, is much better, although you'll lose it afterwards."

"Lose what?" he was afraid to ask.

Knives grinned, turning and pointing to the left side of his face. "The eye, Vash. After you transmit everything, the eye is useless, and so you have to implant one."

Vash's eyes widened in realization. "So Legato..."

"Have you ever noticed that his hair covers that side? That's because I made it that way, so that no one would know to tell him and so he would never notice."

"Wait, what do you mean he never noticed?"

"That eye of his sends a counter impulse that makes him forget to look behind it. If anyone were to tell him then the impulse would be counter by his memory of that someone saying it, thus the trigger shutting itself down. In fact the same thing happened with the recorder in his eye, but that just happened because it burned out. If I had done anything more to it, though, the seeing part wouldn't have worked. But all this time he never knew and I still don't think he knows."

A moment of pause slipped by, Vash staring at the screen in thought. But an image past by that made him gasp, stepping closer as it lingered for a few more seconds. He didn't quite get a good look before it changed but he was sure he saw someone familiar.

"Wait, Knives! Go back!" he yelled in a fuss, Knives looking up in surprise.

"Sorry, Vash, I can't. The images is already loaded onto the disk. Why, did you see something?"

"Yeah! I thought I saw..." he hesitated, finding his statement irrational since they were probably on different sides of the planet at the time.

"You thought you saw what?" he inquired.

"...It's nothing..."

Knives blinked slowly once, but shrugged it off and continued on with his work. When he was finished, Knives snatched up the disk that was as big as the tip of his pinky and walking out. The podium lowered as well as the screen, Vash quickly following as they would once again emerge into the sunlight.

The ruins of July were only a heartbeat away in his eyes, appearing over the horizon like a unbelievable mirage that just couldn't be true. But it was there, as real as day, and in it the people there would be real. Though, as the sand settled and all that could be heard was the slamming of shutters, they questioned whether or not there was anyone here. But, as if out of nowhere appeared a platform up against a crumbling brick wall, two forms standing there. A heat wave stood between them and these people, but there was no mistaking the narrow amber eye which stared menacingly at their approaching presence.

__

'Don't move. Just let them approach and look as concerned as you can. No matter what happens, do not_ show any worry for me,_' he thought, the woman standing in front of him hearing it.

__

'That won't be too hard,' she thought sarcastically, smiling slightly. She straightened out, though, and continued. _'But you promised not to use me as a hostage for real, remember?'_

_'I remember, and I remember promising not to hurt you, too.' _He grinned. _'In truth, I never intended to kill you. I just thought you might like to know that.'_

'I know. But thanks anyways,' she chuckled, mimicking him from earlier. They both turned serious, though, as they came close enough to see their expressions.

Vash and Knives came about ten feet from the platform before they stopped, giving a stare down upon Legato and he doing the same upon them. It was an uneasy moment of silence, but at least it was silent with peace.

"Well, it seems you've managed to come here on your own. I sent out bandits to come and find you but apparently they failed to do their job in bringing you here. However, they did succeed in liberating your weapons," Legato finally spoke after the long minute of silence.

Although Knives remained inexplicably calm, Vash had an undying itch underneath his chest that made his heart race in anxiety. To see the condition she was in, with her hands being held behind her back and Legato's arm around her neck with a gun in his hand, made him angry but a bit queasy all at the same time. What made it worse was that Legato had Ivory in that hand, _his_ gun, and if he used it against any innocent person, including her...it would make him feel all the more shoddier for being so irresponsible to let that gun fall into the wrong hands.

"We have what you asked for. Now give her back," Vash said, balling his fists.

"And the guns," Knives spoke suddenly, Vash adverting his gaze in question.

"Fine. But first you hand me what I asked for."

They glared at each other a moment more, Knives reaching into his pocket as he spoke. "Very well. You hand the girl the guns and walk her over as Vash goes and hands you this."

Katyenka looked up in the corner of her eye at Legato, seeing his glare drip with distain. She wondered under that calm, collected expression how much he wanted to lash out at the man who stood only feet away. Of course, she would have gladly held him down for him, but it was no time to blow their cover.

"A _disk_?" Legato inquired as Knives held it up. "How am I suppose to see them when you give me only a disk?"

Knives grinned. "Well, you didn't exactly specify in what format."

Legato didn't flinch in expression, but he did arm the gun and aim it at her temple. Katyenka's eyes widened in terror, questioning now whether he was a man to keep his promises or not. She supposed it didn't matter, for he would've done it with or without any promises. But she didn't struggle, though, for the words he spoke a moment later put her soul at ease.

_'I promised, Katyenka Buskus, and I will keep that promise, so help me. But you must trust me.'_

Before she had time to think of a reply, he continued. "If you want to play it that way then fine, it's blood on your hands." He slowly smiled, gazing at Vash. "Well, Vash the Stampede, are you ready to have another life gone, this time because of your carelessness in letting this gun of yours fall into the wrong hands? You know I could kill her with my very thought, but to what purpose would that serve? This seems much more significant, wouldn't you say?"

Vash's gaze remained firm for a time, defiantly staring on as a twinge of noise began to knock on his eardrum. After a time it was hard to ignore, sounding like someone struggling to the right of him. He finally looked over to see what disturbed the ill quietness, his firm gaze melting away and freezing into a horrified one.

From a distance, Meryl and Milly were being pushed along and finally landing face first ten feet away from the platforms right. Katyenka turned her head to see what was happening, but Legato continued to smile scathingly at Vash, joy filling him to how much an advantage this could be.

"Hey, boss, we gots ya two more workers," one of the men who had pushed the girls along said, not even seeming to notice Vash or Knives.

Legato chuckled at the irony, beginning to laugh whole heartedly as he shook his head. "My, my, isn't this familiar, Vash the Stampede? Do you remember the screams, the cries of these two as the villagers leaned in for the kill? It seems like only yesterday..."

Meryl looked up at Vash's tearing eyes, hearing a gun being arms behind her and one of the men hoisting her to her feet. It was heart wrenching to see him to upset, appearing so helpless as if he were stuck between a rock and a hard place that were closing in on him. And it was all her fault--it was her fault for him shattering into two, knowing that the option of deciding which should die was now on the table. She had become the hard place for being so arrogant to not trust him on his own, and now it made her cry to see him so terrified of what was to happen in the next few moments.

"So, Millions Knives and Vash the Stampede, how do you propose to give me my memories? I _will_ receive them today and, if not, one of these pairs will die." He force Katyenka closer to him, pushing the gun to her head as he grinned widely. "What will it be, Vash the Stampede? It is your call. Will it be your dearest of friends, your companions? Or will you lose the last link to your beloved Rem Saverem?"


	7. Chapter 7

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Chapter Seven

Knives shook his head, hitting Vash in the shoulder to make him snap out of his paralyzed state. "You wouldn't let me finish. You can get your memories right now, but it will require...some _cooperation_."

Legato's grin faded, raising an eyebrow. "What do you mean _cooperation_?"

"It is a little difficult to explain. You see, I had to take your eye to be able to get them in the first place, so Vash here is going to go over and put this disk in into a little slit on the side of your mechanical one."

Everyone seemed to gasp a little, Legato's one exposed eye enlarging in disbelief. He slowly lifted the hand with the gun in the palm, running the back of his thumb against the left side of his face underneath his one large lock of blue hair. To his surprise, as he tried to poke himself in the eye, he felt nothing but a cold, glassy surface with a little ridge on the side. He knew this couldn't be right and quickly took his hand away, his eyes narrowing once more.

"Fine. As long as it will give me my memories."

"Send over the guns with her as well," Knives said, Legato hesitating for a moment but soon unarming the one in his hand, emptying out the cartridge and putting his other hand on the back of her neck to let her take it. He did the same with Ebony which had been holstered at his side, placing the other in her hands and waiting for a responds.

Vash began to trudge across the cracked, hot ground and felt like it was the longest walk he had ever taken. The journey to July didn't even compare to this, because at least then he didn't have to stare into the face of his enemy constantly. But as he got closer and closer the face of his enemy...didn't seem like the face he remembered from so long ago. He remembered it being a wicked one, a cold and unfeeling creature whose eyes were more hollow than the deepest crevasse. For some reason Vash had been too blind by fury to notice that his soul was not the same--this was _not_ the Legato Bluesummers he once knew. Though his acts were relatively the same, his words now seemed just as empty as his soul had been before, without real meaning or will to back up his threats. In fact, his eyes were actually hopeful, rather than heinous orbs that stared right through a person. He wasn't quite sure why, but as he thought of it he knew where this appearance in him might not have been so strange. He recalled the screen in Dimitri, where he had gazed upon images of Legato's past and saw the same exact look of hope.

What was even more puzzling was when he glanced at Katyenka. She seemed so collected, even when he forced a gun closer to her head. It was as if she knew all along that he was going to do this, and in a brief but very vital second he _knew _that she was expecting it. She glanced so slightly up at him in excitement, a twitch of a smile occurring on the side of her lips that no one else would have been able to notice it. In this he knew exactly what was happening, and felt a rush of relief because of it. Legato was never intending on shooting her, but they were actually helping each other. She was helping him get his memories back, for she had seen the same hope and joy that he was seeing now. He wasn't exactly sure why, but Vash was getting the hint that Legato had treated her quite well while she was here and that he had been sincere when promising to let her go unharmed as long as she helped him. That was the only conclusion he could come up with, and luckily it was the best one.

He stood up on the platform and faced them both, his face suddenly turning into a smile. "Well I hope you enjoyed your stay, Katyenka, but I guess it's time to go home now!" he spoke happily, her eyes beginning to narrow in worry. Legato let her go, Katyenka pausing for a moment before she ran off behind Vash, stepping off the platform. She lingered a while longer, though, slowly walking backwards as she watched as Legato lifted up the hair covering the left side of his face.

His face was normal, he even had his eyelid and lashes normally placed, but his left eyeball...It was a solid light gray shape behind his lid with a clear glass bubble in the center protecting a black spot in the middle behind it. With a small vertical slit on the right side of that glass bubble, Vash assumed that that was where the disk needed to go.

"Are you ready?" he asked with a straight face.

"Just get it over with," Legato replied.

Vash put his free hand on Legato's forehead to lift his eyelid, taking the disk between his forefinger and thumb and slipping it in. Legato's eyes widened as a drop of sweat ran down the side of his face and to his chin, beginning to fall as his vision was taken over by the sight of his memories....

All was dark for a time, blinking as he opened his eyes to find a bottle in his hands, reflecting his tired face in its brown glass. He felt his head move on its own as he looked up, seeing a man's mouth move but with no sound coming from it. From his surroundings he could gather that he was in a bar, the man whose mouth moved apparently the bartender. There was only one other man there, half passed out with a bottle of whisky in hand as he sat at the other side of the room. It wasn't too any surprise why there weren't many people there--the floor was old and rusty, the main bar table itself beginning to rot away.

He watched as his own hand placed the bottle in front of him in a bag, tossing it behind the counter and walking out. The door opened with a quick jab of the shoulder, seeing it swing and hit hard behind him but still without any sound. It was as if he were in one of those ancient silent movies he had read about long ago, without sound and characters in jittery motions. He couldn't even hear his own footsteps as he put his hands in his pockets, walking down a street that was barely lit by a light on the other side. One thing he noticed, though, was that he felt _cold_, not enough to make one worry but enough to know that it would become even colder in the later hours.

As he passed an alleyway in between the bar and another building, he caught something in the corner of his eye, luckily looking down it. There wasn't much there; just a few crates and rotting boxes. What interested him, though, was the pair of wrapped feet sticking out into the middle, the top of a head wrapped in a burlap shawl leaning against the brick wall behind it. He gazed on in question, concern, strangely enough, striking him as he slowly made his way down that route. In a few moments something suddenly struck him, seeming to remember something.

'Bad luck' was a word that came up as he thought, the words just seeming to come to him as he laid eyes on the woman sitting there. He knew who she was, or at least by reputation. Supposedly she had been living with her grandmother for a few years before she died, and she couldn't pay the rent so the house was taken from her. She wandered around town looking for a job, but it seemed that no one would hire her because everyone she was around usually ended up dying. Supposedly her mother, father, and then even her grandmother died on her, leaving her alone and with no one to ask for help. People in town called her bad luck and were afraid to even speak to her, so it wasn't a surprise why no one would hire her.

That, however, didn't apply to him. He didn't believe in bad luck and just talking to her wasn't going to change that. Curiosity got to him as he tapped her leg with his foot, wondering if she was dead by her gangly appearance and a motionless effort to even glace up at him.

His lips moved, but this time a small whisper came from it, so soft that he could barely hear it.

"_Hey, are you alright?_" he heard himself say, the woman slightly moving her head. The problem with this was that he could not see her face. Not that it was covered, but that it was blurred out, as it always was when he looked at her..."_Hey, if you're awake, say something."_

The woman didn't move, but only spoke in the same barely audible whisper. "_Leave me alone...I don't have any money to give you..._"

"_But I don't want your money. I just asked if you were okay._"

It was odd to hear those words come from his own mouth, and yet he could feel something, deep down in his heart telling him that he was like that once, gracious and full of worry. Maybe he still had some of this trait, somewhere in his soul somewhere that could be revived again. He found it unlikely, but it was..._nice_ to see that he at least once had it.

"_No one ever asks that. No one ever cares. I'm bad luck, you know,_" the woman sulked, still refusing to move.

"_Well, for one thing, there's a first time for everything. Secondly, I don't believe in bad luck, and you know what? You still haven't answered my question_." His voice was becoming irritatedin the abundance of side tracking from the subject. He laughed deep within himself, finding it funny that that little part of him carried on through the years.

"_Yes, I'm fine_," she replied, lifting her head up finally to look up at him. But still, her face was completely blotched out.

"_Alright then, that's all I wanted to know,_" he chuckled a reply, standing up once more. He couldn't help but notice how cold it was getting, staring down at her weary state and thinking for a moment. He could have just left her there, alone, probably to freeze to death with the rags she wore or at least die from the illness she would contract from staying out. But in good conscience he just couldn't do that, and smiled as he continued.

"_Say, do you have any place to stay?_" He noticed how weird that sounded and corrected, "_Um, I mean, I heard it was suppose to be freezing tonight and that no one should be out past ten._"

Although he could not see her face, somehow he felt a warmth inside, knowing that she had smiled to this.

"_You seem like a very honest person and if you are offering a roof over my head then I would be happy to go, but..._" She turned her head to the direction of her feet. "_See, I sold my shoes off a while ago, so I've been walking barefoot for quite some time. Today they started to bleed, so I went to the hospital and luckily this wrap was free. I tried walking a few blocks but they started to bleed again, so I've been here since noon I think. In other words, I would go, but I still can't move._"

"_Why didn't you just stay at the hospital?_" he asked.

"_I knew I could never pay them off. Plus the patients were getting a bit antsy with bad luck girl around."_ She laughed half-heartedly with the last part.

He paused for a moment, holding out a hand. "_Well, what if I helped you?_"

"_Helped...me...? You would do that?_"

He could feel a smile spreading across his lips. "_Of course! Why wouldn't I? And Don't go saying 'bad luck' either._"

She took his hand, being helped up and walking along as he put an arm around her waist put her arm over his shoulder. Time seemed to speed up then, watching as they made their way through town and to the outskirts to, presumably, his old home. It was a small old thing, with a broken porch and tin walls and roof. There was at least a wooden door and whole glass in the windows, and the wooden floor inside was at least well maintained. He noticed, though, that their was only a sink, an iron stove, a green hammock on the other side of the room, a table with two chairs, and two doors. One of those doors lead to a bathroom, because the door was open to expose it, but the other was a mystery to where it could lead to.

For a while on the way there they had talked about her life up until then because when time slowed again he could remember it all. He remembered her telling him about how she got branded the name of bad luck, and how sometimes it was a bad and good thing. He wondered how it could have been a good thing, and she just replied that 'it kept the muggers and killers at bay'. This was a very good thing, but it came with the price of no one ever speaking to her. In face, she had in formed him that he had been the first person to carry on a conversation with her since her grandmother died. It made him happy to see her smile then, and if only he knew then what he knew now to keep that happiness for longer than he would.

Eventually they went into the house, and, without saying a thing, the woman just pointed to a spot on the floor with a wide grin on her face and spoke.

"_So, this is where I sleep then?_"

He raised an eyebrow, laughing as he shook his head. "_No, no! You don't have to sleep on the floor! That's what the hammock is for! For guests!"_

"_Oh...Are you sure? I don't want to be a bother-_"

"_Nonsense! I wouldn't have invited you here if I thought you would be._" He made his way to the other side of the room, putting a hand on the unopened door's door handle. "_Now, if you need anything, I'll be in the next room._"

He felt the warmth inside of him again and knew she smiled. "_Thank you again...Umm, you know, I never asked your name. My, that's strange._"

He grinned. "_It's Legato. Legato Bluesummers. And you know, I didn't get your name either._"

This was it, the one thing he wanted to know the most out of all of his memories. He didn't even care if he ever got to see her face. All he wanted to just to know her name, to know the woman who had brought him so much happiness so long ago. But the name would never come in that scene, for time speeded up to where he found himself in the next room. Shockingly enough, he found himself sitting in a closet, hearing himself think that he didn't want to make the wrong impression on her and make her assume he was some kind of creep. A reasonable explanation, but did he really have to go as far as sleeping in a closet?

When darkness came and faded into light again, he found himself sitting in one of the chairs next to the table. The bright light filled his eyes with a silhouetted image reflecting in his gaze, soon coming to form. It was the back of the woman from before, a tattered old apron tied around her waist as she stood in front of the sink and did dishes. He heard a quiet laugh come from her without turning from her work.

"_You know, it's been a week now and I had no idea that you had been sleeping in a closet!_"

He felt himself grin. "_You know about that, huh?_" he asked.

"_I do now. I looked inside when you were at work._" She paused for a moment, wiping her hand on her apron and scratching her head. "_You know, you could have told me._"

"_Yes...But I didn't want to look like a creep_."

"_A creep?! This is your house, after all, so I should be the one considered a creep for staying so long without actually asking you._"

"_Well, too late now. Besides, my house hasn't been this clean since...ever! You really don't have to do all this, but I appreciate it._"

"_After all your hospitality? It would be a crime for me to just sit around and not help you at all!_"

"_I wouldn't say a crime..._"

"_Then it's my contribution to your kindness._"

He smiled, the whispers dying down as time sped up again. In watching all these images fly by, he felt a light headedness coming on, but he would soon come to find it was not because of these images. He could feel a knot in his stomach every time he saw himself talking to the woman, a longing for something taking its place every time he was away. There was no end to this vicious cycle of anxiety and loneliness, and he felt that indeed the woman would leave his dream of happiness because of it. But she remained, always being there when he came home from his work, always giving a warm feeling to his heart when he knew she smiled. In these feeling came a light in his heart, a candle as it were, that brightened every time she was near. He couldn't quite figure out what this light meant or to what relevance it had, but in time he began to see it in her blurred eyes as well. It gave off such a beautiful radiance, though, that it didn't matter what relevance it had, just that it _had_ one. It made him so...so _happy_ to see it, no matter how briefly exhausted he seemed when traveling home.

As so many images past and his heart felt like it was catching fire, he saw himself leave work in such a weary state that it was hard to believe he was excited about something. To what he saw before that time, he knew nothing of what was to become of his former self. But as he climbed the out-skirted slopes to his rundown home he opened the door and saw the woman asleep in the hammock, the brilliance in his eyes beaming so greatly that he questioned how he could still see. Calmly he put his work tools on the table, this time equipment that was meant for welding. He had seen himself switch jobs in the past few scenes, and although it was longer and harder labor it paid much better than the last. Apparently he found it his duty to feed two now, for after all, it had been over eight months since she came into his world. Quietly walking over to her and kneeling down by her head, he put a hand on her forehead and gazed at her slumbering face. He felt it hard to speak at that time, even though there was no one conscious to hear him.

"_If only I could say it when you were awake,_" he thought to himself, sighing lightly. "_If only I could tell you...how much I..._" He laughed deep in his throat. "_I'm so afraid that you're going to leave, but how can I be afraid of losing something...I've never really had, right? I know it's stupid of me...But I don't want you to go, I don't want you to leave me and only have my misery to catch up with me again._"

Although he could feel a smile on his lips, he began to taste a hint of salt on his tongue, his vision becoming blurrier than he knew it should have. Finally his throat began to close, shutting his eyes as he heard a whisper coming from his mouth.

"_I don't want you to go...because I love you._"

The last three words rippled through his mind, echoing on until his thoughts came to a sudden halt, letting those words seep in and hit rock bottom like a ton of bricks. That was the feeling he had; that wonderful, radiant feeling burning through the back of his eyes. _Love_. He knew he had felt it before, but he hadn't quite know what it had felt like. He understood now why he had missed everything he had had, why he was so unwilling to let it just fade away with a quick hit of a bullet...

It was why he came to hate humans so.

And in time, with the passing of more images, he knew how it came to be. Years had past and he never quite got the stomach to tell her out of her slumber. But she did do the one thing he could only hope she would do, and that was to stay. She would be happy there for some odd reason, though he knew she could have better. He wanted to give her something more than just a cracked dry piece of desert to look out to, a house bigger and made of something better than just tin and rotting wood. He wanted to give her a bouquet of flowers every time he came home, (white roses, if possible, for she had told him once that they were her favorite). All these things...and yet he would never be able to afford them. He knew he wouldn't, not with the jobs he was able to get, and even if he asked her to get one no one would hire her. Not even if he worked _three_ would he be able to get enough money for these things. He wanted to give her the world, but all he had to show for it was a few bread crumbs.

As time past, though, he was given an opportunity. It wasn't legal, it wasn't safe, but it was a way to set things right. He thought they were legit, that they would give him time to pay off his debts. They worked with him after all, so why couldn't he trust him? Then again to what he knew then to what he knew now...he was a complete fool for it.

But for a time, life was better than ever. One day didn't start out so good, for he slept in late that morning and got a kink in his neck from sleeping on the floor wrong, (of course, this happened most of the time anyways). As he found that she was nowhere to be seen, he lifted up a floorboard with the pile of one hundred thousand double-dollars and took half, stuffing it in his pockets and grabbing his things without saying a word. As he opened the door, however, he found her sitting there to his surprise, standing up quickly and dusting herself off.

"_Have a nice nap?_" she asked him, finding himself without words and blinking slowly.

"_What are you doing out?_" he questioned, knowing that that wasn't the politest thing to say at the moment.

"_I woke up early this morning to watch the sun rise._ _I noticed haven't been out in the sunlight lately, so I decided to stay out here._" She jumped off the porch and caused dust to rise up from the ground, twirling around with her arms wide spread. "_Isn't it just beautiful? The sky just seems to go on forever..._"

"_Just like your eyes,_" he slipped, seeing her stop and a hint of red appear underneath the blur. "_Uh, I mean, besides for the fact that they're green...uh..._"

An awkward pause descended upon them until she walked up to him slowly, staring up at him for a time. Suddenly she wrapped her arms around his mid-section, hugging him tightly as he breathed in shock, putting a hand on her head and inch-by-inch looking down to make sure it wasn't a dream.

"_Have a good day, okay, Legato?_" she whispered, pulling away and running into the house.

For a time, all he could do was gaze down at his feet, disbelief sweeping over him. He knew she had felt something for him--she had even said so herself! It shouldn't have been so hard to swallow after the many time she spoke of how she was glad she had met him and joyful that she could be around him. It shouldn't have been so hard when he heard those words from her own mind...But somehow it _was_ so hard for him to believe it was true. How could anyone, _anyone_ feel something for a creature like himself?

Yes, he had forgotten about his little secret, the one he kept from the rest of society. He wanted them to see him as a normal human being, not the something that he knew he was. He had a power that no man possessed, a power to read a person's inner thoughts and to even _control_ them. All this time he had been afraid of this power, to what people might think after they knew of it. So, willingly he kept it bottled up inside, away from the normal world. But he couldn't keep it in him forever. He would slip, just as he had that morning, and when he did would she still see him as he was now? Would she still see him as Legato and not a freak of nature?

He could only hope that day as he took his scheduled break from work, going throughout town and buying the things he knew she would like most. Maybe this would convince her that he was still himself, the same kindhearted person he had always been when he revealed his power to her. This, however, was not the only thing on his mind that worried him. He knew he would tell her today; tell her that he loved her and give her the most expensive ring he could buy along with it. He was told once, though, that money couldn't buy love, but it sure wouldn't hurt.

He went home that day, just as the sun was going down upon the horizon and a warm glow came from his own house. Once it had been a dark, empty void he returned to, but now it seemed so bright and welcoming. The woman inside also seemed so bright and welcoming and he figured that must have been what was causing the effect.

He hid his arm holding the flowers behind his back as he slipped through the door, the woman at the stove cooking something that filled the air with a delightful sent. As he set his things down, however, he brought them out with her back still turned, coming up behind as she spoke.

"_I'll have dinner ready in a second, alright?_" she said gleefully, gasping suddenly as the bouquet of white roses appeared before her. "_Legato...T-these are..._"

"_White roses. And they're real too, just smell them!_"

She turned to face him, smiling all the while. "_These aren't really mine, are they? Or, they're one of those prank flowers that squirt water? Or...or..._" She tried coming up with so many reasons why they shouldn't have belonged to her, but every reason was wrong as he pulled out a single rose to prove it to her.

"_They're real, and they really are for you._" He could see her come to tears, his own smile beginning to fade. "_You don't like them, do you?_"

"_These aren't mine...they can't be mine...T-they're meant for your girlfriend, you're special someone. Not for me..._"

He had heard of this 'girlfriend' of his from her mind many times, and every time it was mentioned she would sigh in a depressed way. She just couldn't believe that someone would care about her again, that she would live alone and unloved until the end of her days. This was not so. He, too, had no one who cared about him, but at least now she had someone who thought dearly about her.

He wrapped his arms around her shoulders to comfort her, the woman crying into his shirt. "_Yes, I do have a special someone,_" he confessed, "_and although I have not shown it much, that someone is standing in my arms._"

She shook her head, stepping away from him. "_No, y-you're lying. I don't mean anything to you, I don't!_"

"_What are you talking about?_" he inquired worriedly.

"_I don't mean anything to anyone!_" she shouted, shaking her head as she tried backing up more. Though he disliked doing it, he stared into her eyes, stepping into her mind and seeing what she was thinking.

"_Please don't care, please! I don't want you to die...I don't want to see someone else to suffer!" _He heard these thoughts and his stomach turned in pain, thinking of the right words to say. At last he found them, taking her hand without any protest surprisingly.

"_I told you, I don't believe in bad luck, if that's what you're thinking. I won't suffer just because I care about you, trust me. The only real way I could suffer is that...if I tell you this...it means nothing..._" In this he got down on one knee, reaching into his pocket. "_Good or bad, anything will be better than nothing._" Her tearful eyes widened as she saw the small golden band in the palm of his hand, Legato's expression stern. "_The truth is, I do care about you, more than I've cared about anything in my life before. All I wish to know is if you care about me too, even the tiniest bit. If not then that is fine, so long as I know your answer. But no matter what your reply I want you to have this, to know that at least I will always care about you..._" He reached up and placed the ring in her hand, clasping her fingers around it as he smiled. "_May you always know that you are loved._"

In this he felt tears land on his fingers wrapped around her hand, staring up but still unable to see her face. Suddenly she became eyelevel, falling to her knees and reaching forward as she put her arms around his neck. He dropped his other knee and sat on the floor, cradling her in his arms as he felt his shirt become wet with tears, but no sounds coming from her throat. Indeed, he was not hear nothing further, but knew she said something more. His eyes shut as a release came to his heart, the flame no longer planning to burn itself out but rather calmed to a steady glow. As he put a hand on her head he could feel the same within her mind, smiling softly as he set his back against a wall. Time sped once more, and he kept his groggy eyes open as he sat there and watched her fall asleep. The fire on the stove had burned itself out without being nurtured and fed more wood, so he needn't get up and disturb her slumber. Instead, his eyes became heavy, and in it fell into darkness once more.

His heart, or what heart he had left, began tearing into pieces again as he knew what was to come. He didn't want to watch any more; he didn't want to see his hatred flare up once more and his life being torn away for a second time. Once had been enough to send him into insanity, but to see it again...All he could hope for was that time would speed through it, grant him mercy in the inability to do anything about watching it.

He saw his dreams, too, as he slept, one so vivid and real that he once hadn't been able to admit it being anything more than a dream. Legato could see himself looking at a clock as the hands pointed to a quarter past five, the time he got out of work, and seeing the date on the calendar nearby. He watched as he traveled home, worried somehow, and seeing a mob in front of his house. They were all the people he knew from town, but they were no longer happy. Instead they were angry and spiteful, holding guns and surrounding something close to the porch. He listened as they shouted, moving past them with no mind and finding her lying there, surrounded by a puddle of blood. The rest was blocked out as time came back to the real world, his past self concerned but moving on with his life, his own mine dreading when that event was to be so.

He saw his life so joyful and carefree, spending every waking moment he could with her. She wore the ring around her thumb, only because it was far to big for her other fingers, but in it he knew that she was his world and he was hers. But then he saw his life on the dark side, where over and over he wouldn't have quite enough money to pay back the men at work. Although he would have enough for the next week, they would always say he owed something more with a wicked glint in their eyes. He even wondered once if he had done the right thing, but if it would make her life all the better he would deal with his wrong doings, if that were the case.

Yes, in these images he even saw the dance scene he had experienced with Katyenka when he was hallucinating. _Katyenka_...He had completely forgotten about her at that point, but for some reason now he couldn't stop worrying if she was safe in the hands of Vash or not. Why, _why_ did he worry about _her_ now, of all times? Maybe he just wanted to get his mind off from something he knew would come, but he couldn't ignore his past for long. He saw himself have the same dream but while he was awake, his vision splitting as he fell back and hit his head on the stove. She rushed out the door despite his dazed protests, running after her as soon as he regained some rational thought. He grabbed her wrists before she made it very far from the porch.

"_Wait, don't go get a doctor. I'm fine, see? I'm standing just fine!" _he said with a grin, Katyenka slipping her hand away.

"_Why do you do this?_" she asked suddenly, Legato shaking his head.

"_What do you mean?_"

"_W-why do you buy me all these things and yet you won't even spend money on a doctor to help you! You've been passing out so much lately it's starting to scare me, Legato. Don't you know, I don't need any of these things to be happy. These things are just..._things_, not nearly as important as you. Yes, I'll have all these items, but what good are they when the price is for you to suffer? You said yourself once that nothing is worse than saying nothing, but what's even worse is when no one listens..._" She stepped away, putting a hand on her head as her eyes became watery. He reached for her and put his hand on her shoulder, gathering her up into his arms. "_I don't want you to die, Legato. Please don't leave me here to be lost and alone again..._"

"_I'm not going anywhere, I promise you._" He hesitated for a moment, but turned her around, his face serious but his eyes a bit nervous. "_But I ask that you must promise me something. Promise me that in two day you will leave the house and that you will stay away until sundown. Come visit me at work, shop for new clothes, anything but come back here._"

"_But why...?_" she asked in puzzlement.

"_Just promise me!_" he shouted in a sudden tone of fear, the woman becoming frightened.

"_...Yes, alright,_" she complied, soon hugging him. She stared up at him with a smile, though, continuing, "_But you better keep your promise now!_" He laughed contently, nodding his head as they made their way back into the house.

The promise was made, and he believed that all would be right with the world because of it. He had no worries that day, not even feeling like he needed to get her up to say goodbye but rather only kissed her on the forehead and left. When at work, he could look up at the clock when it was time to leave without worry, knowing that she would be there. He could look at the calendar and laugh, knowing that he had defied his vision and let his life live on. As he walked home, he did find it a bit quiet, but it didn't worry him at all. He just kept on going with a smile on his face, up the slopes and to his home that he knew would be empty.

But it wasn't empty. Instead, hateful eyes glared down at something they surrounded, turning back as they heard his gasp.

"_There he is!_" one of them shouted.

"_He comes home to find his wicked bride dead! Serves you right for ever getting mixed up in these things, kid!_" the bartender from his last job was heard saying, but Legato didn't care. She wasn't dead, it couldn't have been her! She hadn't been home then!

He made his way through the crowd, however, and saw that she was there, lying the same exact way in his dream in a gathering pool of blood. All he could do was run to her, unable to wince away and keep the pain he felt then from returning. He sat to her side and lifted her head, his chest becoming radically heavier and making it harder to breathe.

"_Wake up...Please wake up..._" he cried in a whisper, a hand of hers reaching up and setting on his face.

"_I'm so sorry, Legato...I left to go to town this morning, but I went back to get my ring. I had forgotten to put it back on after doing dishes...I'm sorry I let you down..._"

"_No, no, you didn't do anything wrong. I'm the one who's sorry. I should have been there..._"

Her gaze, he could tell, became blank, Legato looking to the wound on her side. "_Why did they do this...?_"

He could feel the glares on the back of his head but paid no mind to them. "_I don't know why all of them did this-_"

"_It's cuz she put a bad luck hex on us all!_" another shouted, an uproar from the mob following.

"_Our crops haven't been growing!_"

"_Our children are gettin' sick!_"

"_Our lives are becoming worse off than they were ever since she came around!_"

Again and again did they come up with things that weren't true, or at least weren't caused by her. There was no such thing as bad luck, and to the very end he would believe that to be so. He could only see her lips curl into a frown of sadness, Legato shaking his head.

"_You...you think I believe them...?_"

"_What else can you believe?...One woman...against a whole town...?_"

"_You didn't do this..._"

"_Of course not. I...I have no more power than any of these people do...when causing bad luck...if it really does exist..._"

He held her close to him, stroking her hair. "_Then that is what I believe._"

Slowly her frown became a smile, weakly lifting her hands and pulling the ring off of her thumb. She searched for his hand and found one that was on her shoulder, taking it and placing the ring in his palm. Finally, she opened her mouth to say her last words he thought she would ever say. "_Take this ring...and know that you will always be loved at least by me...I love you, Legato Bluesummers..."_

"_And I love you...Katyenka Buskus..._"

His heart shattered then, in his past and in the present, once and for all hearing the name he was not soon to forget. Katyenka Buskus was his whole world, the world he thought had died a long, long time ago. Yet, he knew now that she lived...She had _lived_...

But in that moment, as he drew her back and saw her pale, softly smiling face gaze up at him with bright green eyes of sadness, he thought his life would end then and there. Her eyelids closed, her hand falling limp and her head falling back hard onto the dirt. All that should have been real to him didn't anymore, all that was sane in life no longer making sense. They had killed her out of cold blood and he was still unsure why, why they would do this to her, why they would do this to him.

"_What have you done...?_" he began in an eerily calm voice, the villagers backing off slightly in seeing his rage rising. The flame in his heart was finally blown out by a quiet but deadly wind, his soul becoming hollow.

"_We got rid of a menace plaguing are town!_"

"_Yes, in fact, the men you worked with told us this! They told us she was plotting to kill off the rest of us!_"

That struck something then, a fine line within his subconscious that held him back. Those men that he had trusted...they had betrayed him to the fullest extent. _They_ were the fiends in this world, who wanted to see him suffer so greatly, and so were these people who stood before him. They _killed_ her for believing something they _said_, not actually witnessing her doing anything wrong. They had _killed_ her for being a good person and letting people live their lives in peace...

He had never told her about the powers he had, what he was capable of. In fact, he hadn't told anyone of his powers, but these people would know before they left there. And that would be the last thing they would ever know.

"_You killed her...You killed her in cold blood...You had seen nothing of the person she was, nothing of the kind hearted, loving woman that she had been all because you went on lies and superstition instead...You killed an innocent woman and your hands are too far bathed in blood to believe that you can just get on with your happy, little, _pathetic _lives..._" He could hear the guns arm and the villagers beginning to gasp as they realized that their hands were moving on their own. "_If my world ends so does yours._"

Shutting his eyes, he let go of everything he had, everything that was once his life as he heard the screams echo in the sound of bullets. Eventually they stopped, the scent of gunpowder and blood filling the air. He didn't bother to stare out at the mass of corpses for very long, looking down at the thought to be lifeless body of his beloved, bending down and taking her into his arms. He gazed up over the horizon to the sunset backing away from the approaching night. It was beautiful, though, and he only imagined what her face would be like now if she were there to see it.

"_Look, Katyenka. A sunset...to go with the sunrise you saw..._" he said with a choked voice, a tear falling down the side of his face. This was the last heartfelt emotion he would ever show, he knew, and he was sure of it.

Time sped up again, seeing himself take her to the hospital to have them do a burial right. He would feel abashed if he had to bury her in the same ground that the creatures had soaked their blood into, and he felt enough shame to deem it unfit to watch her be laid to rest. He had failed to protect her even when he knew what was to be, and for that he could never forgive himself. He loathed himself just as much as he loathed them, and in it he realized that he hated all of mankind. They were self-centered, arrogant, egotistical trash that would always suffer and that would always cause suffering. An endless cycle, he supposed, that would only end if they did.

Time slowed again as he saw himself sitting on the porch, smelling the rotting flesh that baked in the sun. No one seemed to bother to come up and drag them away, figuring that they were too afraid to do so. Of course, he cared nothing for them, and would do nothing for them, not even bury them. He knew in the pit of his soul he had done something wrong, but shoved it away to forget about it later.

For the longest time he was in a daze, staring off into the distance with no hopes and no plans for what else he was going to do in his life. All of the sudden, however, out the emptiness he was in he could feel a presence nearby, a voice to follow. He didn't bother to look up, though, for if the voice belonged to a hostile being than so be it. He just didn't care anymore.

"_Well, now, seems you're kind of in a rut. How about I make you a proposition to get you out of it, huh?_"

He hadn't known this voice then, but it was soon a voice he wouldn't forget. It still haunted him, but at least he was no longer a slave to it.

"_I would rather be dead,_" he proclaimed.

"_Now what's the fun in that?_" the voice laughed, becoming somber again. "_Do you pray for them?_"

The voice knew he had been praying earlier, and it was a surprise to him that he knew this. "_Not for these useless scum, but for the one they took away from me..._" The chain around the pieces of his heart began squeezing what life they had in them. "_Why...? Why did they take her from me...?_"

The voice became aggravated, a bit unnerved for some reason. But it faded into an echoing laugh, "_So you hate humans, just as I then?_"

"_Yes, humans...I want them all to die!_" he shouted up into the air, unable to control his rage.

"_Then take my proposition. Come with me and I'll show you that this world will be paradise without them._"

"_How can it be paradise...? Paradise was when she was here..._"

The voice growled, Legato feeling a sharp pain in the back of his neck as he fell forward, hitting his head on the ground. "_You will help me achieve my paradise, a world free of the human race!_"

His world fell into darkness with a cold and evil laugh, an echo of her voice ringing through his head that was telling him not to leave, but unable to stay. It was just one more thing, he realized, that he had failed her.

When all was in a dark glaze, he could hear Knives's voice speak in the distance.

"_So what other information did you retrieve?_"

"_I am sorry, sir,_" another voice said, this seeming to be automated. "_We could only find segments with both of them talking in it, but no vital information on his powers. However, there is still some incentive to this, if you ever want to use it in a means of blackmailing._"

"_Very well. Store it in the computer with the rest of his memories._"

"_But, master, there is one more thing you should know about her-_"

"_All I asked was if her memories were sufficient! Now get back to work, I want that eye working by tomorrow._"

"_Yes, master..._"

Time no longer slowed, but it past through all of the events he already knew of. It was as if he were a puppet within a puppet at this point, doing the things he knew were wrong but having no ability to stop himself, as if his soul was begging to become free but his body no longer responding. He witnessed everything he did over the years, remembering the things he did to keep others from being happy. If he couldn't be happy, then no one would was his deep down motivation, especially with the suffering of Vash. Everything had gone so well for Vash the Stampede to what Knives had told him, and he, most of all, had no right to be so proud and jovial. He would know, just as the rest of mankind, about the pain in living.

But by the end of his long and painful memories, it was not only the weight of sin on his shoulders that made him want to die so badly, but that in the pit of his soul where he had shoved all his hidden secrets he knew it was also the weight of disappointment. Katyenka had adored the world and the happy lives that were out there and he knew that taking so many, purposefully or not, would have made her unbearably upset. He could just see her crying, and to what little spec of emotion he had left he could no longer take it. By then he didn't know in his conscious mind what was making him so weak, and he couldn't just die and not know the reason. So he lived on, but his memories written on a small disk ended.

But in it did her memories begin, not from the way he had viewed them, however, but from a _video camera's_ perspective. He saw almost everything that had happened, still in fast motion, but in no way, shape, or form showing that she wanted to hurt anyone. Everything, without a doubt, had been a lie, but in the dimmest of these images he could see her staring down an alleyway from a dark corner, listening to a conversation taking place. It was between a large, bald man in gray overcoat and the two men at his work. They spoke of someone to turn on, and to his guess it could have only been him. However, the two men were paid off quite handsomely as the large man said one last thing.

"_Knives isn't one to take procrastination lightly, so don't screw around. Spread the rumors and have her killed as soon as possible._"

_Knives_...The name made his blood boil until he felt like it was seeping from his pores. _He_ was the one who had taken her away, and yet he had been so blind to see it, like a sheep being lead to the slaughter. He supposed those years he spent as a puppet were punishment for this, and really he had no excuses apposing it.

And yet, as he saw himself setting her down onto an empty hospital bed from a camera lens, he rushed out of there so quickly that he hadn't seen her reach for him, her throat so tight she was unable to speak. He saw tears well up in her eyes, nurses and doctors realizing she was alive and began treating the wound. For some reason none of them ran after him, but he supposed he had stricken fear into their hearts for the blood stains, not caused by her wound, on his shirt. Light faded again to a dim blur, a buzz coming from his hearing. Words were being exchanged between a figure in the corner and the woman lying on the hospital bed, the woman explaining everything to the figure in a daze. He could see it motioning back and forth to a screen it held in front of itself, the figure suddenly coming forward and slipping a pill into her mouth. She swallowed without thought, not realizing as it told her she had just taken an amnesia pill and she would no longer recollect the events that had happened within the past two and a half years. A sly trick, he supposed, to make sure she didn't come back to try and find him. But nothing more was seen as the camera images faded into static and then black. He was hoping it would end there, for he no longer wished to view his life, no matter how many different forms there might have been.

Then, for some reason, he could see another woman's face, her expression ridden with joy and big, bright brown eyes smiling down. Time did not slow then either, but he was able to hear voices in normal speech as images of this woman and two blond headed boys past by. He knew these lines somehow, but at that time he didn't know where from.

"_A life is a life..._"

"_Don't you get it, I wanted to save them both?!_"

"_Luck and persistence won't last forever..._"

"_Always keep your vision clear..._"

"_Even if a mistake is made, as long as a person realizes their mistake it's possible to make it right again, and if you keep your vision clear you will see the future..._"

Legato could feel that drop of sweat land on his foot finally, his eyes coming into focus to the real world once more. To this shock, though, Vash was still standing in front of him, his eyes widened in some sort of horrific manor. He understood his look, however, when he realized that Vash's hand was still pressed against his forehead to keep his eyelid open...


	8. Chpaer 8

__

Chapter Eight

Backing away slowly, Vash couldn't help but gaze back to Katyenka who stood there in puzzlement. Looking back to Legato, he saw that he was beginning to tremble. Legato was _shivering_, shutting his eyes and putting his hands on his head. He fell to his knees, hunching over as he mumbled ever so softly.

"She was alive...I turned my back on her and she was still alive..." he breathed quietly, eyeing up at Katyenka. She was watching as Knives took the guns away from her and loaded them with another cartridge, but every few moments she would gaze back at him. Every time she did, however, he could just see those eyes of hers looking down his soul.

Vash, though, wasn't so concerned about that subject, but rather about Knives. He turned to find his brother with a grin on his face, seeing Vash's look of question still spread on his expression.

"His powers weren't a threat to you...He _still_ isn't a threat to you, is he? And you knew it."

Knives laughed, arming both guns. "Of course! No human could be more powerful than me! You should know this."

"Then why? Why did you take his memories in the first place if he wasn't a threat to you?"

"Hey, boss, we're just gonna go now," one of the men holding Meryl and Milly captive said. But without another movement a bullet flew through his chest, the other hesitating but scrambling to drag the man away and not to suffer the same fate.

Meryl and Milly shrieked, Katyenka falling over and Vash staring at his brother in horror, Legato still with his eyes shut and his head in his hands. Knives shrugged and blew the smoke coming from Ebony's barrel.

"My speed is becoming a bit rusty, but I'll have plenty of time for target practice. But look how they scramble like rodents! It's just hilarious to have them think they're the smartest things one moment and act like vermin the next!" He glanced back up at his brother's questioning eyes, a wide smirk of evil intentions coming across. "What? You weren't really thinking I was _coming_ around when it came to humans, did you?" He saw his seriousness and cackled. "You _did_! My, and I thought you were smarter than this Vash."

"But...why...?" he choked with tears beginning to steam in his eyes.

"_Why?_ Don't you get it Vash? I _lied_. He could never be stronger than me, but that doesn't mean I didn't want some entertainment around. I mean, what better amusement than a man doing the work for you, serving you as all humans should, and _yet_ constantly suffering in knowing something was taken from him but not knowing _what_. I promised to tell him, but what good's a promise but just wasted breath? Am I right, Legato?"

His laugh echoed throughout their minds, Legato wincing in pain in knowing what he meant. Knives knew of the promise he had made of never leaving her lost and alone in the world, but it seemed as if it was only hot air that came out of his mouth that day. He had left her lost and alone for quite some time, and Knives used that now in an attempt to make him feel a sense of guilt and fear to expose the truth.

"I took his memories because I wanted him to suffer, just as I want you to suffer." He held out both guns and armed them, aiming one at Katyenka and the other at Meryl. "So, Vash, what will it be? The one who hold so deep to your heart or the one who is, in fact, of Rem Saverem's own blood?"

Meryl's eyes wandered to Vash, seeing him ball his fist in a rage. She could only wonder what was going through his mind at that point, to how much spite he felt for his brother. But on the contrary, he did not feel too much spite as one would think, but rather concern as to what Knives was going to do. He didn't want either of them to die and he couldn't just decide. Between what he had searched for his whole life and the something he had found so important to him, there was no way he could or would decide between them!

And yet, he didn't have to, for someone else would make it for him...

Knives became impatient with his answer, scowling as he holstered the other gun, reaching down and taking Katyenka up by her wrists. He gripped her throat as he aimed the gun at her forehead, looking up at Vash from the corner of his eye.

"Ever wonder what Rem's face looked like just before she died? Maybe we can recreate that here and now?" He gazed back at her and grinned once more. "Huh? What do you say?"

Vash huffed, preparing to leap forward as quick as he could and try to stop him. He could only pray that his reflexes would be faster than Knives pulling that trigger, but he knew deep down that going out on a limb like that might not be enough. Prepared to take that chance, however, he began to take one step forward...

"Stop," a cold and stern voice spoke from behind him, making Vash stall and stand still to listen.

Legato stood from out of his quiet depression, his eyes the empty voids they had once been so long ago. He glared Knives down as he glanced back up at him, blinking very slowly in thought. In a moment, he raised his left arm, gazing down at it with a certain anger that suddenly filled him.

"I once despised the man who had been the previous owner of this arm, but only now do I realize that that was wrong of me. Indeed, I should have been despising the one who attached it to me. Then again, maybe my soul would have faded with the rest of me if it had not been this man's idealist blood running through my veins. I know the wrongs I have done and I cannot yet be forgiven for them." He gazed back up to Knives, his eyes narrow. "But you, you don't even care to think how many lives you have taken and don't even want forgiveness. I know of the wrongs you have done, Millions Knives, and you will pay the consequences. But it shall not be by mine own hand, no, but you will suffer by your own undoing."

Knives gritted his teeth as Legato lowered his arm to his side, turning back to Katyenka whose eyes were stricken with fear. As he tried to pull the trigger, his finger refused to move any farther, discovering that his whole arm was frozen. The anger raced within his blood as he tried over and over to pull the trigger but unable to do so. Finally, with a deviant thought in mind, he shoved her down on the ground, the top breaking off from Ebony and lighting up the surroundings.

"Befitting, isn't it, Vash?" Knives shouted, Vash trying to move and reach her in time but finding himself paralyzed as well.

"No. Do not concern yourself, Vash the Stampede," Legato spoke calmly, the light suddenly beginning to darken back into the sun's natural rays.

Knives shouted in rage as the gun stopped sparking, beginning to be drawn back to himself. "_No, how can this be!?!_"

He could feel his heart begin to race, the sound of the wind being blocked out by a whisper coming from inside the deepest part his mind. It was but a harmless noise then, but as it grew and grew he knew what it was. It was the sound of _that_ woman's voice, the lulling of one human as she would gently sing his brother to sleep. It was the voice of Rem Saverem.

He shouted in agony when his vision was no longer apart of the real world, but of that of his past life, especially of that woman who kept singing. These images were filled with happiness, sorrow, even agony to match his own as he watched the people he had known as a child and the ones he had ruined out of his own self gain. All these human's laughing, crying, whining, screaming, gossiping, singing, talking all at once...! It was too much for him to take as he began tearing his hair out of his head, dropping both Ebony and Ivory as he fell to his knees wallowing at the pain of his own memories.

"I will not take another life...But you will suffer for the lives you've taken and have ravaged by seeing the memories you refused to witness. They will be there with you always, remember that much."

He had expected Knives to crack and to apologize for all the wrongs he had done, but he did no such thing. Instead, he began to laugh, a vile and wicked cackle that rang throughout their beings. He said nothing further, but stood up, walking away into the desert planes as he continued on and on to laugh until he was heard no more...

Vash didn't bother going after him. It wasn't too likely they would ever meet again, but it was the best results he would ever want. He was done trying and change his brother, but somewhere deep inside he hoped that one day Knives would find at least some peace within himself.

Although his first thought for a time was to go and check on Meryl and Milly, he was stopped a few more seconds as a voice rang through his head, Legato's tone seeming very sincere.

'_If it be the first person I apologize to I would like it to be her._'

'_Her?_' as replied through his own thoughts.

'_Yes, Milly Thomson. I took away the man she loved and yet he was the man, after I witnessed his dying wishes within his mind, who made me question what I had become. In my conscious mind I finally asked myself if taking the lives who meant so much to someone else was actually right. Please, Vash, can you tell her this? Tell her that...I am sorry for what I have done to hurt her and the rest of you..._'

'_Yeah, that sounds like Wolfwood._' Vash smiled faintly. '_Why don't you tell her yourself?_'

'_I am afraid that no one will be able to believe me. Besides, there are more..._dire_ issues that need to be addressed at this time..._'

Vash paused, but nodded slowly in understanding what he meant. As he left to tend to the girls, Legato walked up to Katyenka, brushing herself off. When he came up to her she smiled brightly, seeming unfazed by what had happened to her just then now that he was standing before her.

"Are you alright?" he asked, Katyenka nodding her head.

"Yeah, not bad. I've seen better days but, you know." She laughed. "You did it Legato! You got your memories back! Plus, you certainly taught Knives a lesson, huh? You got to teach me that sometime!"

He could only stare at her for so long without his eyes beginning to sting in hurt, turning his head away. Katyenka's smile faded, leaning her body towards the direction of his gaze.

"Legato? What's wrong? You did get your memories, didn't you?"

A few feet over Vash bent down to untie Meryl and Milly, Milly's lip beginning to curl in sadness and Meryl staring down in shame.

"We're sorry we caused you so much trouble, Mr. Vash. We were just so worry about you..."

Vash grinned. "Hey, don't worry about it. You had a right to worry and, in truth, were very right _in_ worrying..." He glanced to Meryl, appearing to be bottling up something. As he helped her up, he smiled again, leaning over to look her in the eyes. "Say, what's the matter? That's not the Meryl I know!"

"I promised myself...that I would never put you in that position again. Where you had to decided which should die...I never really forgave myself for seeing you the way you were after that time...But here I am..." She looked up at him with sorrowful eyes. "Vash, I almost had to make you decide again! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry...!"

"Hey, now wait a minute! We're all here still here, aren't we, so there's nothing to be sad about!" She smiled lightly as Milly gave a wide smirk, Vash putting his hands on his hips. "Now that's the spirit! Remember, this world is made of love and _peace_!"

Meryl gave a slight expression of annoyance as Milly laughed. "Well, at least things will be getting back to normal sometime!"

"Yeah and it looks like it'll be real soon," she replied, shrugging the whole thing off as they began to walk over to the other two people standing there.

Vash kept his smile until he came up to them, seeming to smear off onto Katyenka's face and being replaced with a stricken look.

"Is everything okay?" he asked somberly.

"Yeah, everything's fine but Legato won't say if he got his memories back or not," she said, watching as Meryl and Milly walked up behind him.

"Oh, I'm sure he did," he stated, patting Legato on the shoulder as if he were some kind of friend. Although, Legato didn't retaliate, but continued to look to his side.

"Did you Legato?" Katyenka said with hope. "Then...did you see _her_?" Legato flinched slightly, gazing back up at her jovial attitude. She gasped in knowing that he had. "You did! Oh, please tell me what she looked like!"

He could see her bouncing up and down inside to know what the person he had been wanting to know about so badly looked like. Though somehow he just couldn't bring himself to tell her. How _could_ he tell her that the woman in his dreams was actually her? The answers to how to deliver the news of her past seemed so distant and foreign to him. In truth, he didn't know if he wanted her to know. All the disappointments he had caused her, all the failures in his life just gave him more reasons as to why she was better off not knowing.

But what could he do _now_, at that moment? She was waiting for his answer and he just couldn't leave her standing there without one. He had to think of something quickly, and within a moment's hesitation he did.

"She was..." he began, the words barely escaping the roof of his mouth. "She was, and still is, the most beautiful woman I have ever known."

Meryl's eyes narrowed in thought, Milly's eyes widening in the realization of something.

"Do you mean that's why you kidnapped her for your memories? To know more about this woman that you once loved?" Milly announced, Legato breathing a kind of half-hearted laugh.

"_I still do..._" he whispered quietly to himself, looking over to Milly a second later. "I guess you found me out. But really, I knew there was someone I once knew, though I wasn't sure what they really meant to me at first. I suppose you could say I went on a hunch and decided to get all of my memories back."

"Wait just a minute!" Meryl raised her voice in a yell, pointing an accusing finger. "Are you to say that you kidnapped her with no intention on hurting Ms. Buskus but jeopardizing the lives of many just on a _hunch_ that these memories of yours would contain an image of the person you were looking for?!"

He nodded, staring down at the dirt. "Yes, pretty much."

They all knew that something had drastically changed within this man. He was no longer threatening, but in fact seemed unbelievably friendly, as if all the evil left him along with those memories inside of Knives. In fact it appeared that even if he was struck down now by any one of them he would only laugh and brush it off. It was actually scary to see him like this, but they supposed it was all for the better.

"But why did you want to know so much if you couldn't remember what she meant to you?" Meryl asked, silence drifting through the air.

Katyenka stared up at him solemnly, her eyes narrow in a melancholy way. "He saw her die, and he knew that that was the reason why he began to hate the human race." Legato looked up at her in surprise, Katyenka seeming to have seen right past him. "It's why you didn't tell me the reason, wasn't it? Because it was painful to mention, am I right?" Another second lingered before she continued, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have mentioned it."

"No, it's alright. At least the rest of my memories were happy ones," he said quietly.

"At least you know your past now, the cheerful parts, and I'm glad you do." She laughed weakly. "Maybe one day I'll even know my past, huh? I know I was loved once, too, and if you can get someone to cross the desert to deliver your memories on a disk I think I can find _something_ out, right?"

No one answered, but Vash gazed at Legato with a certain anger. She _deserved_ to know her past, even if it was apart of his own, and he would make him know that she did. Legato knew this already, though, and knew that inevitably he would have to say something.

"Tell her Legato," Vash suddenly said aloud, Legato closing his eyes tight as he felt distain for himself drip upon the tip of his tongue.

She looked from Legato to Vash and back again with confusion in her eyes. "Tell me what?"

He couldn't deny her the past she, too, had longed to know. To keep it from her would just be another act of selfishness on his part and it was just one more thing he didn't want weighing on his life...or hers. He lifted his hands and stared at them for a time, his throat beginning to burn.

"I'm sorry," he whispered as he put his hands on the sides of her face, Katyenka's head jerking back in a gasp as her eyes dilated. A moment later he pulled his arms back, watching as she dropped to her knees in shock.

He panicked then as she began to quiver, shaking his head as he stepped back and ran away. The three that remained could only wonder what she was feeling at that point, Katyenka's words distant as she spoke.

"Legato...Bluesummers..." she began, still trembling in her stunned state. "I saw it...I saw it all...But these memories didn't bring him the happiness he thought they would...He's in pain now..." Suddenly she arose, sprinting off after him into the ruins of July.

The sands rolled, both Meryl and Milly having inquisitive thoughts run through their heads at that moment.

"Vash, what just happened?" Meryl asked, Vash pausing to reply but soon smiling.

"Well it's...a _long_ story," he laughed, Milly tilting her head in question.

"But we have time Mr. Vash and I'm sure Meryl and I both would like to know," she stated smiling innocently.

Vash sighed, shrugging. "What can I say? True love conquers all!"

"True love?" Milly inquired.

"Well...where should I start?" he began.

"How about from the beginning," Meryl pointed out, Vash beginning to explain it all as they walked along calmly through the same streets the two previous beings had taken.

The tears were beginning to run dry at that point, his face emotionless as he watched the dust float by beneath him. His kneeling had disturbed the once peaceful ground, having the footprints left behind him blow away by the silent wind that past. The red carpet beneath him was still partially intact, weeds beginning to poke their heads up through the cracks in the cement ground. The bricks of the building he was in were also still there, although worn where some had even crumbled away in the ceiling, letting the light of the sun seep through. He was shocked that this was even here for a time, but then wondered why he would ever dare step foot into a place like this. Nicholas D. Wolfwood was probably rolling over in his grave, but what other place did he have left to turn to? If he could not ask forgiveness from others he figured he must first find forgiveness in himself, and how ironically befitting it was that the only place he could think of was a church.

But in his silence he could think of nothing for the longest time, hunched over and staring at the palms of his hands. In a quick thought, however, he sat up, gazing to a hole in the ceiling that exposed the crisp, flawless blue sky. What he hadn't noticed, however, was that someone now stood in the open doorway behind him.

"Why...? Why was I so blinded by hate? Why couldn't I wake up from that nightmarish hell? Why can't I still...?" He paused, bowing his head once more. "Is it wrong of me to ask for forgiveness now, of all times, when my vision has become clearer than it ever has? I am too late...to say that I did wrong...that I am sorry for everything I have done in my life?" Those dry wells in his eyes did not stay dry for long as he could feel his eyes begin to sting and his mouth with the sudden taste of salt. "Wou...Would it be wrong...to say I'm sorry to her? To say...that I am sorry I failed her in every promise I made...?"

"No," a voice came from behind, Legato's heart skipping a beat as he turned his head slowly. In the doorway stood the silhouetted image of Katyenka Buskus, her hands loose to her side as she spoke. "It wouldn't be wrong, Legato..."

He turned his gaze away, shutting his eyes and speaking as monotone as he could. "You know, I figured out why you saw that image of yourself and why I couldn't. It was because you had that memory all along, locked inside your mind, and I could not see it because I did not have the memories that could _tell_ me what I was seeing."

"Legato..." she said quietly.

He made his hands into fists, concealing the anger he felt. "I would apologize forever if I could, but what good will it be? All it's good for is wasted air."

She stood back, shaking her head. "Is that what you really think? That everything we promised each other...was _wasted air_?"

There was nothing more he could say. He had loved her so much, and he knew that he _still_ did--he had loved her even when he didn't know about his past. But he had lied to her, telling her all these promises he would never follow through with and had left her lost and alone. How could he ask her to forgive him? How could he forgive _himself_? It was probably better that she knew him as the cold, heartless creature he had turned into than end up heartbroken again, and so would it stay.

"Well...I don't care!" she yelled, calming a second later. "I don't think it was at all. And y-you may think that we failed to keep our promises-"

"No, you succeeded," he interrupted, shaking his head. "I'm the one who failed. I hurt people...I _killed_ people...something I promised I would never do..."

"B-but you said yourself that you didn't want to hurt anyone! You knew deep down that you didn't want to hurt them, that you were being controlled like a puppet u-under the s-service of Knives!"

He laughed deep within his throat sorrowfully. "You stutter when your nervous. I remember that all too well now..."

"Please, don't feel regret over that. It wasn't your fault, you were being controlled by Knives to do the things you did!"

"Maybe then, but was I being controlled when I sent over thirty villagers to their deaths that day?" A silence came, Katyenka shaking her head slowly as Legato continued. "I killed them just as they had killed you. Once I had thought that they were the evil in the world, but I guess...I guess I am no better than they were..." He scuffed his feet as he stood, his back still turned to her. "Do you still see me as the Legato Bluesummers you once knew? Or do you see me as the monster I have become?"

"I-I..." She tried to say something, _anything_, but the words just didn't seem to want to come out.

He didn't seem to become so much irritated by her delay but rather agitated, worried to what her response might be but pleading to know sooner than later. Suddenly her feet began to move on their own, stumbling up behind him as they came to a halt, Legato finally turning to face her. He placed the one large lock of blue hair on the left side of his face behind his ear, exposing his robotic eye. Katyenka remained speechless for a time as he spoke, still unsure what to make of everything.

"What do you see?" he repeated in a stern tone. Although his face remained expressionless and he tried hard to fight back any emotion he might have had, a tear swelled in his right eye before it fell to the side of his face. As if without second thought or hesitation, Katyenka lifted her hand up and wiped it away with her thumb, leaving her hand on the side of his face.

"I see...neither..." she replied with a warming smile. "I know what you did was wrong, but I know all you want is to find redemption for that wrong. I know you are suffering because of guilt, but you also want to ask for forgiveness. And I know you are trying to push me away, but no matter what you say I know that I cannot deny what my heart is telling me. I wondered what that funny feeling I had inside meant when I met you, but now I know. We both know now, don't we? We can't go back to the way we were, Legato, but that doesn't mean we can't see a different and much better sunrise..."

He slipped her hand away, holding it for a minute in his own. "I failed to protect you, Katyenka. I turned my back on you when you needed me the most and after all the sins I've committed against you and the rest of the world I...I can't ask you to forgive me...I just can't..."

Legato let her hand drop then, trying to walk away but finding it so difficult to do so. He couldn't pry himself away from her gaze no matter how much he wanted to, becoming distant and feeling as if his dreams were taking over again. As he stared off in front of him, his felt pressure around his midsection and back, looking down a moment later and watching as Katyenka pressed her forehead up against his chest. His arms remained loose to his sides, almost believing that if he lifted them to hug her back she would fade away just like the footprints he had left behind in the dirt.

"If you are to go then answer me this. Did you think of me when you thought I was gone? Did you really care about me deep down when you were nothing but a puppet? Do you still think about me, just in the littlest bits of your mind?"

He didn't know what she was getting at by that, but he tried to answer it in the greatest truth he knew. "Every waking moment..." he replied.

"Then you kept your promise," she proclaimed. "I knew somewhere inside that someone still cared about me and I never gave up hope believing that. You never really left me alone but we just misplaced each other is all. You really did stay with me, Legato, and even if we misplace each other again we'll know that there will always be someone out there who cares."

He could finally feel something in his arms again, lifting them slowly and wrapping them around her. Shaking his head, he shut his eyes in wanting this moment to never end, continuing shortly after.

"Why? Why do you stay here?" he whispered.

"I remember Vash's voice in your memories clearly and I'm hoping you do too. He said that 'even if a mistake is made, as long as a person realizes their mistake it's possible to make it right again'. I saw your thoughts and I know you want to make it right again and...I want to help. I want things to be like they were before all of this, I want to be happy again, but most of all...I want to be by your side. I still see you as the man who wanted only a peaceful life for himself and others, the kindhearted man who gave me a home and filled that gap in my heart. You've just...seen more of the world than most men would want. I still love you, and all I ask is if I can come with you to help pick up the pieces of yourself that you may have lost."

He held her close then, leaning his head against hers. "Then it'll be so. We'll be together...and know that I will never leave you again..."

She looked up at him with a beaming smile. "I love you, Legato Bluesummers..."

"As I love you, Katyenka Buskus."

Along came the three voices that had been missing for some time, but they paid no mind to them. From the sound of it, Vash was finishing his story of Legato's past, though apparently as thoroughly enough to answer all of their questions.

"So Ms. Buskus was actually Legato's true love after all?" Milly asked inquisitively, Vash nodding his head.

"That's kind of an odd pair, don't you think?" Meryl questioned.

"Yeah, I suppose...But remember, the power of love conquers _all_!" he laughed proudly, the same awkward but loveable grin on his face reflecting in their eyes as they walked up to a small brick door. Vash glanced in first, quickly ducking back and putting a finger over his mouth for them to shush.

"Vash, what is it?" Meryl asked quietly.

"Oh, is it them?" Milly inquired.

He nodded once more. "Yeah, and it seems all right as rain with them too," he replied, looking back over his shoulder inside. Meryl and Milly peered around him as well, witnessing the two of them standing in an silent embrace. A moment past before Vash backed away, beginning to walk away. Both of them stared after him, Meryl shuffling a bit before she spoke in a low yell.

"Hey, what about Rem? Aren't you going to tell her?" she questioned, Vash stopping and turning back with a smirk.

"I have a feeling she already knows. Her vision seems clear enough already that I think she can see way off into the future. Besides, I'm sure I've told plenty of people who know and appreciate everything that she did for us. But now I guess it's just one of those times that since one thing's done, life should move on to bigger and better things."

Meryl smiled, happy to see him so glad. All he had wanted was to let the last descendant of Rem Saverem know of her doings, and now that she did he could rest easier. They could all rest easier knowing that somehow their lives would be at peace, that life would go on happily once more.

And life _did_ go on happily. No longer was their lives purged with sorrow and frustration, or plagued with violence as it had once before. Since Vash had disappeared for over four months, bounty hunters had given up searching that town and moved on to bigger fish to fry. How peaceful it was now that the debts had dwindled to nearly nothing and the days went on quietly without much interruption. At times it might have been boring in the sleepy little town, but at this point boring was so much better than too much excitement.

Five months after returning to their home they had gotten word in the newspapers that the bandits had been surrounded in July by the nearest cities' law enforcement and dragged out. The people who had been kidnapped for the reconstruction were also set free unharmed, and had since become a thriving tourist attraction. People found in interesting to come and see their past for the first time in so many years, and strangely enough it seemed to have become as bustling as it once had been before.

But because everything in their lives was less than bustling, this gave them time to think about the littler things. It made them think more about their own lives, about where they were headed and when, if ever, anything important was to take place. Although Milly seemed very content with herself, Meryl always had a certain shyness within her that hadn't been there before. No one could have suspected what the real cause was but a bit of the shakes concerning their ordeals over the years. However, this wasn't even close to the real answer. The truth was every time she saw Vash, just to stop and stare for a moment in reflection, she always thought of the two they had left behind in July. She knew that they wouldn't waste their lives contemplating what would have happened if they had never told how much they meant to each other. It made her wonder if she should be wasting time questioning whether or not she would regret telling Vash how she felt about him. At that point in time she had grown very fond of Vash the Stampede and was curious as to what he was thinking when he saw her. She knew she would not regret--no, it wasn't like to her regret. But things were happy the way they were and she wanted it to stay that way for some time to come. There would be other days to tell him, but for now she knew that the best thing life could do was to stay as perfectly simple as possible.

Hours went by same old, same old until one day a letter came for Vash. It was very unusual, seeing as how they didn't receive any other mail besides from the Bernardelli company once a month and that day just happened to be an off one. Plus, _no_ mail ever came for Vash. There was no return address and the wrapping had over ten different kinds of stamps on it, but that didn't matter too much as Meryl walked into the house with it and handed it to Vash, still eating his morning meal. He stared at it in surprise for a second, putting down his spoon and replacing it with the package.

"Who's it from?" he asked, looking all about it but finding no name but the town they were in and the address of their household.

"I don't know, but the mailman said it was for you," she replied, Vash raising an eyebrow.

"For me?" he repeated, beginning to rip it open. The items inside were quite well protected, hidden within a metal cylinder that came apart fairly easily. Popping it open, two pieces of paper came floating out, one placed within a folded letter. Vash slid out the paper within first, a smile spreading slowly on his face as his eyes softened. Meryl stared over his shoulder, her eyes narrowing in thought.

"Vash, this is a _photograph_! These things cost hundreds to do!" she stated, pausing for a moment in examining it further. She knew then that that wasn't exactly what got to him, but rather the contents of the photo. "Wait...Is that...a wedding picture?"

From the looks of it, although the picture was all in brownish colors, the woman in the picture wore an elaborate light colored dress with a crown of light colored roses adorning her head. Next to her stood a man with a nice, dark long coat, wearing a collared shirt and tie with a dark pair of pants and shiny shoes. It wasn't hard to figure out that this couple was Legato Bluesummers and Katyenka Buskus, but they seemed to be doing pretty well off from where they had left them before. Something that did not change, however, was the expression of happiness in their eyes.

Setting it down and picking up the letter, he opened it to find a hand written note from Katyenka, Meryl eyeing it as well as Vash read it carefully.

_"Dear Vash--Hello there! Sorry we didn't write you sooner, but it's so blasted expensive to send just a simple letter! Of course, we paid extra to send it in a container, (you just can't trust the mail, especially in that far of a distance). Well, we both went out looking for jobs after those bandits were caught, (I'm not going to say who tipped off the officials, but let's just say you know him). Since this place became a tourist spot so quickly I jumped to the opportunity and decided to become a story teller. Of course, I wasn't very good at anything else but a thousand double dollars a day for telling little children the past of the city from when I saw it wasn't too bad! No one seems to know as much as I did, so basically I'm the only real story teller there is here. Legato took up a job at the travel agency too. It pays well, but I'm not so sure if he appreciates it as much when he has to deal with blatantly ignorant tourists who ignore the maps right outside his work._" Vash laughed slightly, imagining Legato trying to keep his cool when about the thousandth man comes in and asks him for directions when in fact there's a map on the outside of the entrance door."_You've probably seen our picture, and it is a wedding picture if you couldn't tell by just looking at it. I don't know what time this letter will reach you, but we got married in July...in the city of July! It's kind of ironic that we got married in the same church you last saw us in, too, (but it was redone and all). We were sure to have enough money to get a picture done to send it to you. As I write this we're beginning to pack to move out of town, so you may want to save your postage and not send us anything. This place was nice and all, but we know have things that need to be done. We just can't go hiding forever, now can we? I know Legato wants to find his peace and I want to help him as much as I can. Someday I'll write you again, and I know this may not be the best thing to ask but...Vash, would my ancestor, Rem Saverem, be proud of me?_" Something struck a nerve within him then, his smile fading slightly in thought. "_I know she was a very courageous lady, one who stood up for what she believed in and didn't take crap from anyone, not even Knives. I've tried being more like that in my years, and knowing that somewhere in my blood I have bravery in me doesn't make it so hard to believe that I could actually be brave. Although I could never compare to her, I was just wondering if she might be proud to have me be her descendant. Legato tells me that you knew her personally, so I just thought you might know if she would have been just a little proud for having me stand up for what I believe. I know, it's crazy of me to ask. Just another thought for a boring day I guess._

"_Well, that's enough of my rambling! Hope we can see each other sooner than later, but I'll be sure to write when I can. Oh, say hi to Meryl and Milly for me too, and please as them to keep you out of any more trouble! And remember, the sun will always set on the most perfect of days, but that doesn't mean that the sun won't rise again._

--Katyenka"

Vash kept his same bland for a time, Meryl blinking slowly at that last sentence but soon grinning to the one before it. She reached over and pinched his cheeks, nodding her head.

"Yeah, we'll be sure to keep you out of trouble," she proclaimed, taking her hands away and thinking once more about the last few words she wrote.

She watched as Vash rose from his seat heading for the window over the kitchen sink and looking out in thought. Coming up behind him, her mind began to raise a question. Did Vash know what she meant by that, or was he still thinking about Rem? There was only one way to find out.

"Vash, are you alright?" she asked, Vash turning his head to face her with a smile on his lips.

"Yeah, just fine. I was just thinking about that last thing she wrote."

"Then you know what it means?"

He nodded. "It means that the nice events in your life eventually fade into memories, but those nice memories are usually beaten away by not so good ones. Though, even if the perfect of days in your life go sour, there's always hope for the next day, isn't there?"

Meryl smiled too, understanding what he meant. Somehow the most simplest things in life seemed so complicated, and yet it always made sense when it came from his words. It was the way she wanted it to stay, and even as the moment past and she knew that life would continue to have its up and downs, at least she would always have his voice in her memories...


End file.
